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HENRY CLAY FRICK 


Henry Clay Frick 


THE MAN 


BY 


GEORGE HARVEY 


Ct 


New York & London 
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 
1928 


a 
a 


Contents 


- ANCESTRY . 


- BOYHOOD 


BEGINNING BUSINESS IN COKE 


. A TRIUMPH OF FAITH AND COURAGE 


INTERLUDE ; ; : ° 
ENTER THE CARNEGIES 

. “THE MAN’? IN STEEL . 

- HOMESTEAD 


- THE STATE INTERVENES 


. ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION 


. POLITICS ° ° : 


“‘THE LAIRD” AND ‘*THE MAN’”’ 


. VICTORY’S COST AND GAIN 
- OLIVER AND FRICK 


- NEGOTIATIONS 


. MR. FRICK RECEIVES HIS RESIGNATION 


. THE FINAL DRAMATIC BREAK 


. MR. FRICK WINS HIS FIGHT 


. THE UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION 


. A CAPITALIST 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

THE PATRIOT 

AN ART COLLECTOR 
BENEFACTIONS AND BEQUESTS 


PERSONALITY . 


LY i | 


. 200 
EIS 
Rp loi, 
one se 
. 258 
. 269 
. 289 
6336 
ae ee 
ft 549 


356 


Ulustrations 


Me PRICK 2g tw gl se vontispiece 

Wood engraving by Timothy Cole Si Ae Sp 
DemeteeePniCe——Grandiaiher = =. wl lk kl 4 
DMMP ERMOLT RESIDENCE .-.  . °°.) whe!hCUOG 
ABRAHAM OVERHOLT—Grandfathr . . . . . 8 
BIRTHPLACE—THE LITTLE SPRING HOUSE . ... I0 
PrrmrertAm OVERHOLT—Umle. . . . . s , 22 


ACCOUNT RENDERED—Written and initialed by Mr. Frick . 26 


A LETTER OF CONDOLENCE—W*ritten and initialed 


2 
oe ee Re OVERHOLT—Drother-in-law . . . . « 30 
NS I a a Y > 
Meee ERICK Mother . . . . . . . 46 
SS 6 cr © 
MRS. ABRAHAM OVERHOLIT—Grandmothr . . . . §8 
MeeAMe OA TINSIMAN—Cowsin . .  . . . «. 60 


HENRY CLAY FRICK—— 


Meee FG 
RS 2 
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Meeeaefurtuenty-one. 26. lw lw lt lk el lle CD 
TT Te a ee 7.72 
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PICTURE GALLERY : P : . : , : : - I92 


MR. AND MRS. FRICK—MR. AND MRS. KNOX— 
BRR AE i a es 2D 


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HENRY CLAY FRICK—At¢ the age of forty-five 
“CLAYTON’’—PITTSBURGH . as | 
DRIVING OPES) 0 or pclae 
‘“‘AT THE 16TH HOLE’’—MYOPIA 
IN LATER YEARS—Mr. Frick at “Eagle Rotk; 


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country place at Pride's 2 Once. Mesrecbai 2 


NUMBER ONE BEAST SEVENTIETH 


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‘ 


INRY CLAY FRICK 
‘THE MAN 


MONARY: CLAY F RICK 
THE MAN 


I 
Ancestry 


HE American progenitors of Henry Clay Frick 
were JOHANN NicHotas Frick and Martin 
Overnott who followed William Penn from 
the continent of Europe in search of religious 
freedom and personal opportunity. Frick came from Swit- 
zerland and Overholt from the Palatinate on the Rhine. 
Both sailed from Rotterdam and landed in Philadelphia 
but they were only nominally contemporaneous. Martin 
arrived about 1732. and died in 1744. Johann came in 1767 
and lived till 1786. Henry Clay was of the fourth gener- 
ation succeeding his two great-great-grandfathers. 

The Swiss family Frick, of Celtic-Burgundian origin, 
is very old; that is to say, it sprang into prominence and 
gave name to a village in the Sisseln-Thal nearly four 
hundred years before Columbus discovered America and 
it holds authenticated records of unbroken lineage from 
1113 to the present day. 

Among the adventurous members of the family who 
immigrated to America, following Conrad who led the 
vanl in 1732, was JOHANN Nicuotas, who proceeded forth- 
with to Germantown, the rallying point of colonists from 
Switzerland and the Palatinate, where he found descend- 

I 


Frick the Man 


ants of Conrad, and of nine others of the name who had 
atrived between the years 1732 and 1755. 

The pioneering spirit naturally dominated newcomers 
from the old world bent upon acquisition of fertile lands 
in fresh territory and the trend necessarily was to the 
West. Already John, the eldest son of Conrad, had pushed 
on as far as the Susquehanna valley and established a 
prolific branch of the family in Lancaster. Others were — 
gazing longingly toward the Alleghenies and avid for 
information concerning the vast country beyond when 
the patriots of Philadelphia and all the country round 
were thrilled by the sound of the big bell proclaiming 
the Declaration of Independence. 

One of the first orders issued by the Continental Con- 
gress was addressed to the Scotch and Irish settlers of 
Western Pennsylvania to prepare immediately to protect 
the region from attacks anticipated by way of Lake Erie 
from the British and the Iroquois. The frontiersmen of 
the Youghiogheny and Monongahela valleys were not 
_ only willing but ready. They had been fighting Indians 
and Virginians all their lives and ‘every cabin contained 
a Bible, a rifle and a whiskey jug.”’ 

The famous Eighth Pennsylvania regiment, compris- 
ing seven companies from Old Westmoreland and one 
from Bedford County, was the first organized, with 
Colonel Aeneas Mackay in command, and was encamped 
at Kittanning arranging, under orders from Headquarters, 
to proceed up the Allegheny and build forts at Leboeuf 
and Erie, when a cry for help came from the East. The 
British were chasing General Washington across New 

2 


Ancestry 


Jersey, Philadelphia was imperilled, the American cause 
seemed to be doomed and urgent calls for aid were issued 
to all the colonies. Of the commands summoned the 
Eighth Pennsylvania was the most distant and con- 
fronted by the greatest obstacles. Neither officers nor 
men had tents or uniforms or heavy clothing of any kind, 
flour alone was available for food, and cooking utensils 
comprised only pots and pans from farmhouses. 

But there was no hesitation on the part of the men of 
Westmoreland and Bedford. Leaving their families vir- 
tually unprotected from impending attacks by savages 
and facing three hundred miles of mountain roads and 
trails, of which more than one-third were hidden by 
deep snows, they set forth upon a march unequalled in 
severity, except possibly by that of Benedict Arnold 
through the Maine woods, in the seven years of warfare. 

At the end of nearly two months of toil and sufferings, 
worn to their very bones, footsore and starving, the 
survivors limped intoa wretched camp near Philadelphia, 
only to learn that the battles of Trenton and Princeton 
had been fought and won and that they must hasten 
forward to join General Wayne’s division in New Jersey. 

One-third of the entire command, of whom fifty died 
in a few days, were so ill that they were left behind in 
Philadelphia and Germantown, and it was from these 
sttange visitors that the sympathetic colonists from 
Switzerland and the Palatinate heard glowing descrip- 
tions of the fertile Youghiogheny valley. 

Among the first to seek the promising land was JoHaNN 
NicHoxas Frick who crossed the mountains with his 

3 


Frick the Man 


family in a covered wagon as soon as peace was assured 
by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown and settled 
at Port Royal, Westmoreland County, where he died in 
1786. He was succeeded by his son GzorGz who remained 
on the farm until 1804, when he took a boatload of flour 
and whiskey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to 
New Orleans where he died of malarial fever. Of the nine 
children whom he left behind Danret was born in 1796, 
lived successively on farms near Port Royal, Adamsburg 
and Irwin, moving finally in 1849 to Van Buren, Ohio, 
where he died in 1855 and was buried first in Van Buren, 
then in Wooster, nearby. He married Catherine Miller, 
a smart, redhaired Irish girl, in 1818 and, following her 
death in 1838, Matilda J. Martin, each of whom pre- 
sented him with nine children. 

Joun W. Frick, Daniel’s eldest son, born in Adams- 
burg in 1822, married Er1zaperu, daughter of Abraham 
Overholt of West Overton, Westmoreland County, in 
1847, resided in that vicinity till 1880, when he moved 
to Wooster, where he died eight years later. 

MarTINn OvERHOLT, born in the Rhenish Palatinate in 
1709, was one of the thousands who were compelled by 
religious persecutions and the virulence of Franco-German 
warfare to forsake their native land in the early part of 
the 18th century. The exact date of his arrival is not 
known but it must have occurred soon after he attained 
his majority, in 1730. That he accompanied his fellow 
refugees to the recognized meeting place at Germantown 
may safely be assumed, but presently he passed on to 
Bucks County on the Delaware, acquired a farm appar- 

4 


DANIEL FRICK 
(Grandfather) 


Ancestry 


ently by lease in Bedminster township, married in 1736, 
died in 1744 in his thirty-sixth year and was buried in 
the Mennonite graveyard, leaving a son, Henry, born 
in 1739. 

Subsequently Martin’s widow was induced to become 
the third and last wife of William Nash, a pioneer, who 
made a will on November 18th, 1760, bequeathing to 
her “‘the stone end of my dwelling house for her to live 
in, as also 2 cows, and a young horse, with a sufficiency 
of hay yearly to fodder said creatures, with four sheep 
and sufficiency of hay yearly to fodder said sheep, as also 
my Sd wife’s saddle she is to possess and enjoy.”’ 

The pioneer died the very next month and the cows 
gave so much milk and the sheep furnished so much 
wool, and both increased so greatly in numbers that 
only two years later ‘‘Augnis,’’ as her second husband 
designated her in his will, was able to acquire the entire 
farm of 175 acres and 4 perches adjoining the graveyard 
for conveyance to her son, before she died in 1786, in 
consideration of ‘‘ £357, 17 shillings and 2 pense.”’ 

Meanwhile, i.e., in 1765, Henry brought to the fine 
“Overholt Homestead’’ as his bride ANNA BerTLER, who 
kept the cradle rocking till 1789, when Susanna, the 
twelfth and last occupant, was born. 

The Mennonites, like the Quakers, were pacifists by 
religion but patriots by nature, and were untroubled by 
conscientious scruples when it became necessary to fight 
for the freedom which they had crossed the ocean to 
win. Immediately upon the outbreak of the Revolution 
they organized the Bucks County militia and Henry 

5 


Frick the Man 


Overholt was one of the first to join. He served through- 
out the war and, like his friends in Germantown, listened 
eagerly to the tales of the gallant soldiers from the West 
as they paused for rest and refreshment in Bedminster on 
their way to and from New Jersey. That he was no less 
keen than Johann Nicholas Frick to seek the wide spaces 
beyond the mountains upon the cessation of hostilities 
may well be believed, in the light of his subsequent 
adventure, but in 1783 his mother was too old and his 
eight children were too young to justify so hazardous 
an enterprise. 

When the new century dawned Henry Overholt and his 
good wife Anna, aged respectively sixty-one and fifty- 
five, were rich in spirit and in health, in lands and in 
buildings, in cattle and in sheep and most joyously in 
sons and daughters, of whom six were already mated and 
four were single, including Henry, aged 21; Abraham, 16; 
Christian, 14; and little Susanna, 11. Only one, Sarah, 
who died in infancy, was missing. 

Then it was that Henry Overholt, yielding to the in- 
creasing urge of the time and his long repressed inclina- 
tion, sold the famous ‘‘homestead” for the handsome sum 
of ‘£1500, gold and silver money’”’ and, loading his en- 
tire family, comprising his wife, five sons, six daughters, 
five sons-in-law, two daughters-in-law and thirteen 
grandchildren, thirty-three in all, along with a great 
quantity of goods and chattels, upon a string of covered 
wagons, set forth upon his long journey. The roads were 
uniformly bad, the mountains high and steep, the fords 


deep from swollen streams, the oxen slow and the dis- 
6 


tht 
tH 
baltll 


fs 


* 


THE OVERHOLT RESIDENCE 


Ancestry 


tance quite three hundred miles, but the days were so 
sunny and the nights so cool that the hardy party 
reached its destination, ‘‘all safe and sound,’’ in the 
Summer of 1800. 

They found a rolling country surpassing their most 
hopeful expectations, well wooded and watered, suitably 
apportioned between rich meadows and green pastures 
and, best ofall, sosparsely populated that desirable tracts 
of land could be acquired for small sums. The father of 
the flock bought several hundred acres in East Hunting- 
don township and built upon a hill in what afterwards 
became the village of West Overton a second ‘‘Overholt 
Homestead,’’ even larger and more imposing than that 
which he had left. The married sons and daughters 
““colonized’’ roundaboutly on farms of their own. 

ABRAHAM, then in his seventeenth year, was one of the 
three sons who remained at home. He had learned the 
weavers’ craft in Bedminster and, while his brothers 
were clearing the land, he worked at the loom fabri- 
cating cloth for the clan until 1809. He then married 
Marta, daughter of the Rev. Abraham Stauffer and grand- 
daughter of the Rev. John Stauffer, both of whom had 
served in the Revolutionary War as members of the Lan- 
caster militia, and purchased in partnership with his 
brother Christian, who had married his wife’s sister 
Elizabeth, an interest in the homestead farm. 

When the pioneer Henry Overholt died in 1813, Abra- 
ham came into possession of the entire farm and his 
mother continued her residence in the big house until 
her death in 1835. 


Frick the Man 


The portion of the farm which Abraham bought from 
Christian, one hundred and fifty acres at fifty dollars an 
acre, then considered a high price, included, in common 
with nearly all similar properties in the region, a small 
log distillery, which became the basis of the largest for- 
tune in that section of the country. Promptly increasing 
the capacity of the still from three bushels to fifty 
bushels of grain a day, the new proprietor developed 
and expanded the business until, in 1859, the daily grain 
capacity of a big new factory, one hundred by sixty- 
- three feet and six stories in height, reached two hundred 

bushels and the daily output of flour exceeded fifty 
barrels. The ‘‘Overholt’’ brand of whiskey became fa- 
mous for its strength and purity and it is said that for 
yeats before he died, leaving a fortune of half a million 
dollars, the chief business pride of its originator, second 
only to the quality of his product, lay in the fact that 
the supply never equalled the demand. 

But Abraham Overholt did not submerge himself in 
manufacturing. He discovered the coal whose subse- 
quent mining and baking by his grandson produced di- 
rectly one, and indirectly through application to steel 
fabrication many, of the greatest fortunes of America. 
His distinguishing traits in business were absolute in- 
tegrity, straightforwardness, fairness, liberality, order, 
punctuality and consideration for the welfare of his em- 
ployés. He never held public office but he took a deep 
interest in affairs and rendered signal service in helping 
to establish a common school system of the best type. 

Originally a strong supporter of Jackson in national 

8 


ABRAHAM OVERHOLT 
(Grandfather) 


Ancestry 


politics, he balked at Van Buren and acted with the 
Whigs until the Republican party was organized, when 
he became an ardent supporter of Lincoln. Although 
nearly eighty years old during the Civil War, he strove 
incessantly to encourage enlistments and frequently vis- 
ited the soldiers from Westmoreland County in the field. 

A staunch Mennonite in religion, he attended church 
regularly on horseback with his devout wife and fre- 
quently permitted divine services to be held in his house, 
although he was prevented by diffidence and reticence 
from performing his allotted task as lay preacher, and it 
is recorded that he risked the penalty of excommunica- 
tion by flatly refusing to observe the feet-washing regu- 
lation of the sect. 

His personal appearance wasimpressive. Tall, straight, 
courtly and benign, clad invariably except when at work 
in broadcloth and a black tie relieved by a pearl stud, 
with a glossy wide-brimmed silk hat on his head and a 
gold-headed cane in his hand, he must have looked a 
somewhat austere figure, and yet his true nature was so 
well understood that, greatly to his own satisfaction, 
he was addressed by men, women and children alike as 
‘“Grandpap Overholt,’’ truly an authentic type of the 
democratic lords to the manner born of his day and 
generation in the United States. 

Abraham was well mated. All contemporaries agree 
that Maria STAuFFER OVERHOLT was an admirable rep- 
resentative of the fine womanhood of her time, natur- 
ally intelligent, well educated, kindly but firm in her 
domestic relations, a helpful neighbor, a faithful friend 

9 


Frick the Man 


and ‘‘the best housekeeper in the world.’’ Her costumes 
befitted her position and, like her husband's, conformed 
strictly to the fashions of the time, black or “‘ashes of 
the rose’ cashmere with white lace at the neck, caps of 
exquisite bobbinet lace tied with white linen strings, 
and for church a black debage bonnet and a silk cape 
trimmed with velvet. 

The bearing of each to the other was invariably most 
respectful and if ever a disagreement marked the entire 
sixty years of their married life, no indication of the 
circumstance reached the attention of any one of their 
eight children. 

Euizasetu, the fifth child, was born in 1819 and re- 
mained at home until she was twenty-eight years old, 
when she accepted a proposal of marriage from Joun W. 
Frick. It was a common surmise in the community at the 
time that Elizabeth’s parents would have preferred a 
more sedate and better established suitor than the im- 
petuous, red-headed scion of the Celts and Burgundians, 
_ but as there was no withstanding her calm inflexibility, 
the wedding took place at the homestead on October 
gth, 1847, and presently the little Spring House at the 
foot of the lawn, denuded of its pans of milk, jars of but- 
ter and preserves, crates of cheese, apples and plums, 
was assigned to the couple for temporary occupancy. 

It was a unique abode, solidly built of stone, compris- 
ing three snug rooms; protected from gales in Winter by 
walls eighteen inches thick, and warmed by a huge fire- 
place containing serviceable ovens; cooled in Summer by 
pipes of running water, and furnished with bright red 

10 


THE SPRING HOUSE 
(Birthplace) 


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Ancestry 


carpets for the floors, blue china and steel knives and 
forks for the table; a small book case for the living 
room, a grandfather’s clock, with works of wood, from 
Connecticut, and other paraphernalia of the period. 

Here, following a girl baby born in the big house and 
called Maria for her Grandmother Overholt, a son was 
born on December 19th, 1849, and named, for the leader 
of the Whig Party to which all the Fricks and all the 
Overholts then adhered, Henry Cray Frick. 


II 


II 
Boyhood 


LAY Frick, as he was called by his schoolmates 
and the neighbors, was an attractive lad. 
Slight and frail from his birth, his physical 
growth in childhood was slow and intermit- 

— tently painful. While during this period there seems to 
have been no doubt in the minds of his parents and grand- 
parents that he would attain manhood, they realized 
that his first few years would require most tender care, 
and he was seldom out of the sight of his watchful 
mother or grandmother while toddling back and forth 
between the tiny Spring House and the mansion tower- 
ing above it across the lawn. 

They regarded him as‘‘delicate’’ rather than‘‘sickly’’ 
and, although occasional manifestations of suffering im- 
pelled his mother to cover his stomach with foolscap 
paper, they felt no real apprehension until his father 
took him, at thé age of six, on his first long journey to 
see his Grandfather Frick in Van Buren, Ohio, where he 
succumbed to the hardships of travel and developed a 
fever which compelled his retention for more than two 
months. 

From the organic ailment, then first clearly revealed 
and subsequently diagnosed as “‘chronic indigestion”’ or 
as ‘‘inflammatory rheumatism,’’ he was never thereafter 

12 


Boyhood 


wholly free. During the period of his most strenuous 
activities it was not unusual for him, upon returning 
home from his office, to drop upon a sofa and suffer griev- 
ously until the prescribed restoratives, always at hand 
to be administered promptly, could bring relief. It was 
such an attack of exceptional virulence, involving deadly 
pressure upon a weakened heart, that immediately pre- 
ceded his fatal illness. 

Clay passed perceptibly from childhood into boyhood 
at the age of eight when, having régained his normal 
strength, he began to do chores on his father’s farm and 
to attend the Independent School near West Overton dur- 
ing the winter months, when only he could be spared. 

It was a memorable day in the records of the Frick 
family when the eager-eyed lad set forth from the Bixler 
farm, owned by his grandfather and then occupied by 
his parents, to seek an education. No more than ac- 
quaintance with the custom of the time is required to 
visualize accurately the pretty picture, typical of Ameri- 
can pastoral life, when, scrubbed and brushed, in a brand 
new suit of store clothes and brass knobbed shoes, hold- 
ing fast to his mother’s hand, he awaited impatiently in 
the doorway the arrival of his cousin Isaac Overholt to 
escort him to school. And no less clearly can the mind’s 
eye dwell with smiling sympathy upon the fair counte- 
nance of the proud daughter of Abraham Overholt as 
with hands folded, following a final pat upon his head, 
she watched her man-child march primly forward to take 
his place in the busy world. 

Schoolmaster Voight greeted the little chap with a 

+3 


Frick the Man 


low bow and, taking him by the hand, led him upon the 
stage and announced impressively to the boys and girls: 

‘‘T present to you Mr. Henry Clay Frick.”’ 

The abashed recipient of this unusual honor, manfully 
overcoming an inclination to burst into tears, finally con- 
trived tomakea bow so like the schoolmaster’s own that 
his quick movement to a bench was made to the music 
of loud cheers and gales of friendly laughter. 

Recalling the episode years afterward, Mr. Voight said 
that he could account for his own unpremeditated and 
unprecedented act only as purely intuitive recognition 
of one who was to become his most illustrious pupil. 

The school room was typical of the period, bare and 
cheerless but fairly well lighted and usually overheated 
from a woodburning stove. The pupils sat at desks upon 
benches without backs and the teacher watched them 
from a platform, surmounted in the rear by a blackboard 
whose glossy surface was relieved by an ominous orna- 
ment in the shape of a hickory stick showing signs of 
frequent usage. The curriculum comprised the familiar 
three R’s, slightly amplified, the books allotted being 
McGuffey’s reader, Pinneo’s grammar, Mitchell’s geog- 
raphy and Ray’s arithmetic. 

Clay attended the Independent School two terms, in 
1857 and 1858; the Alverton, originally a Mennonite, 
School one term in 1859; the West Overton School “‘on 
the hill’’ two terms in 1860 and 1861; the “‘Western 
Pennsylvania Classical and Scientific Institute,’’ West- 
moreland College for short, in Mt. Pleasant, two terms 
in the Winter of 1864 and the Spring of 1865 ; and Otter- 

14 


Boyhood 


bein College in Westerville, Ohio, ten weeks in the 
Autumn of 1866; thus acquiring his entire stock of edu- 
cational training from five terms in primary schools and 
less than three terms in those of higher grades; com- 
prising altogether approximately thirty months of tu- 
ition; and ending, happily for his ambitious and impa- 
tient spirit at the age of seventeen, in 1866. 

The vividness with which his schoolmates, now well 
past the period of human existence allotted by the Scrip- 
tures, and generally maintained as a basis of calculation 
until recently extended by Science, recall circumstances 
and trivial episodes of sixty years ago clearly evidences 
that there was nothing commonplace in the youth’s 
composition. Distinctive individual traits, whose sub- 
sequent development through his own endeavors marked 
his career, found early expression. 

Chief among these was a veritable passion for concen- 
tration in the attainment of a specific purpose. 

Apparently he was not averse to acquirement of the 
“general education’’ which those primitive schools were 
designed to provide; but his interest seems to have been 
only sufficient to avoid black marks for enforced exhi- 
bition at home, his attention was correspondingly cas- 
ual, and he is remembered as no more than ‘‘an average 
scholar, ‘except in one respect: He was “‘splendid in arith- 
metic, ’ he ‘‘excelled us all, older or younger, in mathe- 
matics,’ he was determined to get ‘‘a good business 
training;’’ and time for diversion from that definite aim 
could not be spared. 

That this rigid exclusion was attributable to the rea- 

15 


Frick the Man 


soning of a lad not yet in his teens is hardly imaginable; 
inherited instinct may have exerted some influence, but 
environment undoubtedly played the controlling part. 
Born and reared in the long shadow of his distinguished 
grandfather, he could see but one glowing example 
worthy of emulation, and while very young he confided 
to his mates a determination to achieve success even 
greater than that won by the notable progenitor whose 
blood coursed through his own veins. If a fortune of 
half a million could be acquired by an Overholt of the 
preceding generation, there was “‘no reason”’ why, with 
wider opportunities, one of a million should not be gained 
by that Overholt’s grandson, ‘‘and I propose to be worth 
that before I die,’’ not only bespoke his own full faith 
in his ability to realize his ambition but was so convinc- 
ing to the minds of his boy companions that half a cen- 
tury later they separately recalled his very words. 

It is not surprising that the impressions still retained 
by the hair-braided pupils who, conformably to custom, 
sat on the other side of the aisle, are equally distinct, as 
he was a familiar figure in the village streets while still 
the brown curls nestled about his head or glistened in 
the breezes incited by the rapid movement of his grand- 
father’s light-stepping span and glossy buggy. 

“They made a very pretty pair when they came to 
town, the one so fresh and young, the other old and gray 
and very dignified, with little Clay always driving the 
team of one bay and one gray, except just after he had 
typhoid fever when of course he wasn’t strong enough 
to guide them.”’ 

16 


Boyhood 


One can readily believe that when, even at the rela- 
tively advanced age of eight, the boy first faced a battery 
of girlish glances, following his teacher’s overpowering 
introduction, and later broke down completely when he 
made a desperate effort to recite ‘“Twinkle, twinkle, 
little star,’’ the hot blood flew to his face. But it is not 
recorded that the girls laughed derisively even when the 
little star abruptly rejected the beseeching appeal. Here 
was the scion of Quality and Family, the pride of their 
own recognized magnate, prospective heir to wealth and 
position, born to the manner, bred by gentlewomen, and 
himself “‘the most perfect little gentleman I ever met,”’ 
surely one not to be ignored or held unkindly by girl- 
ish fancies. 

Nor was the lad’s attractiveness merely superficial. 
Upon acquaintance he was found to be “pure in thought 
as well as in speech, never uttering a coarse word, never 
guilty of a rude act and always as polite to little girls 
as to older people,’’ chivalrous, too, and notably pro- 
tective of his own.‘‘I remember that one time his distant 
cousin Susan was not getting along very well in her stud- 
ies. The teacher was provoked at her, and he warned her 
that if she didn’t do better he would have to give hera 
dose of ‘hickory oil,’ as a whipping was called in those 
days. When Clay heard this he was angry clear through. 
He was hardly more than a boy, but he served notice on 
the teacher that if he whipped his cousin Susan he 
would whip the teacher. And Susan didn’t get whipped.” 

It is not surprising that so thrilling an episode should 
have stamped an indelible impression upon the sensitive 

17 


Frick the Man 


mind of the narrator. Nor is there occasion to question 
the accuracy of her recollection. One’s imagination can 
readily portray the impetuous young descendant of the 
fiery Fricks and the stern Overholts, with eyes flashing 
and fists clenched, hurling defiance and menace at the 
most burly of pedagogues in a crisis such as that depicted. 
Nevertheless, without minimizing in the slightest degree 
the fearlessness and gallantry of the young knight, it is 
highly improbable that the teacher was really deterred 
by his threatened reprisal. Hints at terrifying possibili- 
ties may have been permissible, but even in those days 
of salutary physical penalties there is no tradition of a 
custom justifying the actual whipping of girls by school- 
masters; so it is a fair assumption that Susan’s danger 
was more apparent to the pupils than real to the mind of 
the teacher, who alone in this instance seems to have 
been humiliated. 

Young Clay was less fortunate. Solomon's famous ad- 
monition was held to apply to boys in school even more 
rigorously than at home, where maternal intervention 
was feasible and not uncommon. ‘‘The teachers, who 
were always men, were very strict and would stand no 
monkey business. Most of us got lickings occasionally 
and, as I remember, Clay had his share, though I cannot 
recall the reasons, probably just mischief or maybe be- 
cause he wouldn’t study what he didn’t like, though I 
never knew a fellow so eager to get on, and when he set 
out to do a thing he always did it, which I think was 
the secret of his success all through life.’’ 

Finally, we are told, he was ‘‘full of antics but never 

18 


Boyhood 


a rowdy, though his quick temper got him into many a 
fight and he would tackle anybody who he thought 
wasn't playing fair with him.”’ 

Very early in life he began to demand for himself ‘‘the 
best there is,’ and would be satisfied with nothing less. 
Frankly disdaining the part-shoddy and ill-fitting gar- 
ments commonly allotted to farmers’ sons, he declared 
at the age of fifteen that thereafter he would clothe him- 
self, and he kept his word despite the difficulty of earning 
enough money to buy “‘the best.’’ Appearing one morn- 
ing “ina pair of black boots, with yellow stitching, that 
had cost sixteen dollars,’’ his extravagance was duly 
noted, but he smiled contentedly and ‘‘every morning 
they shone like new and at the end of six months the 
yellow stitching was as bright and spotless as when 
new.’ Years afterwards he confided with a twinkle that 
“by going barefooted during the summers’’ he ‘‘made 
them last three winters in the pink of condition.”’ 

Clay remained on his father’s farm during the long in- 
tervals between school terms until 1863 when he secured 
a place in his Uncle Christian’s store in West Overton 
and worked for his board and the privilege of sleeping 
on the counter. Thus for two years he obtained his keep 
and seems to have earned it since, at the expiration of 
that period, his Uncle Christian took him to Mt. Pleas- 
ant and recommended him so highly to his Uncle Martin 
that the latter hired him with money to clerk in his 
“general emporium.”’ 

Tradition has it that his wage was no less than three 
dollars a week but the evidence on this point is not con- 

a) 


Frick the Man 


clusive. In any case, his step upon the lowest rung of the 
financial ladder inspired the confidence which then evoked 
the avowal of his determination to ‘‘make a million.”’ 
He was an ardent salesman, “‘more aggressive’ “— 
meaning probably more ingratiating—according to their 
own testimony, than the older clerks, and winner of the 
only severe competitive test recalled extending through 
an entire year. His chief interest, however, was in book- 
keeping and his assiduity in perfecting the somewhat 
ornate, though strikingly legible, chirography then in 
vogue for ‘‘accounts rendered’ no less than for auto- 
graph albums, was limitless. Primarily, no doubt, the 
appeal most enticing to his nature in this painstaking 
endeavor was his inherent love of artistry, but hardly 
less impelling, one may reasonably surmise, was the de- 
velopment of rare workmanship which would open the 
way from the counter to the counting-room; but, whether 
foreseen or not, this did prove to be the effect, greatly to 
his advantage, in the attainment of his first partnership. 
Clay’s social life began in Mt. Pleasant at the age of six- 
teen under favorable conditions. Making friends readily 
among the hundred or more students at the Classical and 
Scientific Institute, he was welcomed to membership in 
the various college associations and quickly assumed, by 
common assent, responsibilities befitting his vocation as 
a potential man of business and trustworthy financier. 
The most distinguished and exclusive Literary Society, 
comprising barely twenty members, was the Philo Union, 
of which he became Business Manager immediately fol- 
lowing his initiation. His chief official tasks consisted 
20 


Boyhood 


of keeping the accounts, safeguarding the treasury, see- 
ing to it that the cost of entertainments should never 
exceed the proceeds, ‘counting the money and paying 
the band.”’ 

It is not recorded that he participated in the Literary 
Exercises presented for parental and public approbation, 
but it is recalled distinctly that he inaugurated a move- 
ment to expand the meager library and trudged faithfully 
from house to house in search of segregated books, 
which invariably he bore in his own arms to add to the 
common hoard. He was “‘a great reader’’ himself and, 
though his selective privileges were necessarily limited, 
his tastes were notably catholic. His prime favorite 
naturally and irresistibly, as of his generation and years, 
was John S. C. Abbott’s enthusiastical Life of Napoleon 
Bonaparte; second only to that were Walter Scott’s tales 
and poems, most particularly the Lay of the Last Min- 
strel, ‘“Breathes there a man with soul so dead,’’ which 
he stood ready always to declaim; and third, Thomas 
Jefferson’s Life and Morals of Jesus Christ, of which in 
later years he presented many copies to friends, with 
never a word in explanation of his enigmatical choice. 

The Independent Order of Good Templars of Mt. Pleas- 
ant was organized in the Methodist meeting-house on 
May ist, 1866, under the guidance of the pastor, the Rev. 
J. C. High, by whose invitation Clay became a charter 
member and, although only seventeen, he was appointed 
promptly on the important Committee on Admissions 
and soon thereafter on the Committee on Care of the 


Sick, Worthy Scribe, one of the editors of the Lodge pub- 
21 


Frick the Man 


lication called the “‘Eastern Star’’ and, seemingly as a 
matter of course, on the Committee on Finance and, at 
the expiration of a year, treasurer of the association. [he 
minutes contain no record of attendance but his steady 
official advancement leaves no room for doubt of the 
youth’s diligence and exactness in performance of allot- 
ted tasks or of the subsequent value to himself of his first 
perception of the effectiveness of organized endeavor. 
That even at that early age, according to the recollec- 
tions of his associates, his manifest pride was of achieve- 
ment rather than of distinction may well be believed. 

Round ball, a simple precursor of the intricate base- 
ball of the present, was the most important of outdoor 
sports in those days, but a contest required so much time 
that play was restricted to Saturday afternoons and holi- 
days and Clay, lacking strength and endurance to “‘bat 
and run,’’ participated merely as umpire or scorer. The 
game most constantly employed for relaxation was that 
crude successor of the ancient exercise of throwing the 
discus called quoits but played with horse shoes and re- 
quiring skill and accuracy rather than physical strength. 
In this pastime the keen-eyed and painstaking young 
clerk excelled and ‘‘could make more ringers than any 
other boy in town.”’ 

The decorous and educational game of Authors afforded 
the chief evening diversion, ‘‘cards’’ being so universally 
condemned as an enticement of the Devil that “‘nobody 
ever saw a deck in town.’’ But there was an occasional 
dance, to the music of a single fiddle, and the accommo- 
dating performer records sympathetic recollection of the 

22 


CHRISTIAN OVERHOLT 
(Uncle) 


Boyhood 


occasions when he “‘used to carry notes back and forth 
between the boys and girls when dates were being ar- 
ranged for a walk.”’ 

The pleasurable and mildly adventurous experience of 
sleeping on a counter came to an end for Clay at West 
Overton. At Mt. Pleasant he boarded with his Uncle 
Christian and Aunt Katherine and, after working a few 
months for his Uncle Martin, was transferred, greatly 
to his satisfaction, to the new corner store of the “‘Mt. 
Pleasant Partnership,’’ comprising his favorite Uncle 
Christian and Mr. Lloyd (Barney, Schallenberger. With 
the exception of three months’ leave, which he obtained 
for the purpose of finishing his education at Otterbein 
College, whose records reveal that he scored eight out 
of nine attainable points in both Essays and Orations, 
he continued his clerkship in the Mt. Pleasant store for 
three full years. 

This period, which he always remembered as one of 
the happiest in his life, reached an abrupt ending in 1868, 

when he was eighteen years old. On a very hot day in 
- August, while sedulously mopping his brow and water- 
ing his horse at the trough opposite Peter Sherrick’s 
house, John Frick was amazed to perceive his son trudg- 
ing up the road from Mt. Pleasant. Waiting patiently 
until the young man had laved his perspiring face and 
head under the spout, he inquired somewhat caustically: 

‘What do you mean by walking three miles on a day 
like this? What’s the matter?”’ 

“Barney [Schallenberger] discharged me,’’ was the la- 
conic response. 


23 


Frick the Man 


‘Does Grandmother Overholt know about it?”’ 

VINO 

‘Well, you had better go and tell her right away.”’ 

Aside from an amusing illustration of the taciturnity 
common in those days between father and son, this 
trifling episode affords convincing corroboration of con- 
temporary testimony that Clay ‘was brought up mostly” 
by his maternal grandparents—a circumstance, in con- 
sideration of their exceptional characteristics, of no 
slight significance. | 

What occasioned the rupture at the store that morning 
further than ‘‘a difference of opinion’’ or what happened 
in the big house that evening is not recorded even by 
tradition. All that is known is that on the following 
day a very serious grandmother, standing in the door- 
way, watched a very solemn grandfather escort a very 
sober grandson on horseback to the Overholt distillery 
at Broadford for engagement in manual labor. 

But it quickly proved to be, as doubtless it had been 
expected by his grandparents to become, a mere avoca- 
tion, after all. Even though a reconciliation might be 
effected, Clay had no wish to return to Mt. Pleasant; 
his wings were beginning to spread; so after a few weeks 
he persuaded his devoted Uncle Christian to take him 
to Pittsburgh, fifty miles away, to recommend him for 
a position, which he readily obtained, and to lend him 
the fifty dollars required for the purchase of a ‘‘best’’ 
suit of clothes. 

The situation procured for him by his uncle in Eaton’s 
store yielded six dollars a week and seems to have been 

24 


Boyhood 


agreeable and satisfying in all respects but one; it did not 
afford the wider opportunities which he desired; con- 
sequently, after prudently studying the mercantile con- 
ditions for a few weeks, he struck out for himself for 
the first time, boldly applied, with no recommendation 
other than his own statement and his pleasing appear- 
ance, fora position in the big store of Macrum and Car- 
lisle, and was engaged forthwith at a salary of eight, 
presently increased to twelve, dollars a week. 

Twenty clerks were employed and the firm strongly 
encouraged competition. Although not designated as 
Chief Clerk, William G. Blair had for long been recog- 
nized as the leading salesman and claimed the privilege 
of serving the best customers. This prerogative was con- 
ceded by all of the other clerks, but the latest recruit 
promptly challenged it as a violation of the principle of 
fair rivalry openly espoused by the proprietors and de- 
structive of its intent. 

“All young Frick asked,’’ notes the only salesman 
who dared uphold him, ‘‘in the interest of the firm no 
less than of himself, was fair play, but that he would 
have and, without making any fuss about it, he calmly 
ignored all protestations and made himself so popular, 
especially with the ladies, that it wasn’t long before his 
name began to appear at the head of the Sales List almost 
as often as Blair’s.”’ 

Naturally the management perceived no cause for com- 
plaint or reason for interference and, although ‘‘it was 
gall and wormwood to Blair’’ and “‘general unpleasant- 
ness’’ ensued for a time, ‘“‘Clay was so considerate of 


2s 


Frick the Man 


Blair’s feelings and so tactful and goodnatured that after 
a while he won them all over and made them like him 
in spite of themselves.”’ 

That his previous experience, supplemented by his 
indefatigability and buoyancy, stood him in good stead, 
is clearly evidenced by his receipt of an offer from the 
firm of twenty dollars a week if he would return to their 
employ, less than a year later, when his feet had found 
at Broadford another round of the ladder to that avowed 
goal of no less than ‘‘a million dollars.”’ 

Convinced by quick observation that “‘H. Clay’’ savored 
of boyish affectation and seemed likely to be regarded as 
unbusinesslike, and detrimental to his progress, he saw 
to it that his name should appear in the Pittsburgh Di- 
rectory as ‘‘Fricx, Henry C., clerk, Anderson St., Alle- 
gheny’’ and ever thereafter, except when at home, where 
he could not lose the “‘H. Clay,’’ he signed his name 
simply ‘‘H. C. Frick.”’ 

He wasted no time. Rising and dressing for breakfast 
at seven o'clock on every week-day—there were no half- 
holidays then—he crossed the river and walked to the 
store, atriving promptly at eight and remaining till six, 
returned to his boarding-house for supper, recrossed the 
river to a business college, where he applied his mind 
sedulously to study of accountancy and methods of bank- 
ing till nine-thirty; then finally ‘‘home’’ to his hall bed- 
room and sleep. His acquaintances were few and his 
only associate seems to have been the clerk who had 
‘backed him up’’ in the store, with whom every Sunday 
morning he went to hear the eloquent young pastor, 

26 


MILE OF ACCOUNT RENDERED 
/ritten and initialed by Mr. Frick) 


Boyhood 


Rev. Dr. Pearson, preach in the Fourth Avenue Baptist 
Church. Occasional attendance with his congenial com- 
rade at a lecture, a concert or a play constituted his sole 
diversion. 

Five months of this arduous routine, supplemented 
doubtless by imperfect sanitation and dubious drinking 
water, incited a severe attack of typhoid fever, and it 
was a greatly emaciated and very ill boy that was brought 
back to the big red house on the hill in West Overton. 
But the nursing of his devoted grandmother and sister 
Maria finally triumphed and, when September brought 
the cool, fresh breezes, again, old Abraham Overholt, 
this time in a buggy behind the span, took his favorite 
grandson to the enlarged distillery at Broadford and 
proudly installed him in the place he had fairly earned 
as chief bookkeeper at one thousand dollars a year. 

The firm’s name was “‘A. Overholt & Co., Manufac- 
turers of Flour and Youghiogheny Whiskey,’’ the ‘‘Co.”’ 
comprising the founder’s eldest son, Henry S. Overholt, 
and his grandson, Abraham O. Tinstman, one of his 
daughter Anna’s nine children. Henry exercised a general 
supervision of the business and the sturdy patriarch Abra- 
ham, then in his eighty-sixth year, ‘‘drove over once in 
a while to see that everything was going all right,”’ but 
the active manager was Mr. Tinstman, an alert and ex- 
ceptionally capable man of thirty-six. Thus at last brought 
into close businessrelationship, upon a satisfactory basis, 
with his venerated grandfather, his uncle and his cousin, 
Clay found his association not only most congenial but 
highly favorable to furtherance of his own ambition. 

27 


Frick the Man 


He needed no spur. Despite the continuing effects of 
his enfeebling illness, within a month, in addition to 
keeping the books and making out the bills with abso- 
lute precision and Spencerian flourish, he was measur- 
ing lumber, weighing grain and selling flour. Often, “‘as 
early as two or three o’clock in the morning,’’ somewhat 
to the annoyance of others who wished to sleep, “‘he 
would get out the mules and hitch them up and drive all 
over the country,’’ but that was later when he was pros- 
pecting for coal in lands whose hidden wealth was 
undiscovered. 

On January 15th, 1870, Grandfather Abraham died 
suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy at the age of eighty- 
six and was laid to rest in the presence of a great gather- 
ing of the clans and neighbors and friends assembled from 
all the country round, to pay final tribute to the strong, 
kind man whom for so many years they had tacitly recog- 
nized as Squire of Westmoreland County. 


28 


A OVERHOLT sy, 


AL) TENST MEAN 


A. OVERHOLT & co. 


MANUFACTURERS OF 


Flour, and Youghiogheny Whiskey, 
PDoad Ferd, \WQexcks 9° 7870 
WOcas QJ Vo $9 wore ~ 
RUTburoh as 
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FR pect Cameo , fy oO b re ye, 
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OF, 


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FACSIMILE OF A LETTER OF CONDOLENCE 
(Written and initialed by Mr. Frick) 


* 


a 


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ta Ban 


~ 


b 


III 
Beginning Business in Coke 


HE Chief topic of conversation between the two 

cousins, Abraham Tinstman and Clay Frick, 

following the death of their grandfather, was 

the potentiality of coke manufacture from coal 
obtainable in the vicinity of Broadford. Often a discus- 
sion of some phase of the subject, begun at the ending of 
the evening game of chess, would run far into the night. 
Their views never clashed for the simple reason that they 
approached the general proposition from quite different 
angles. The elder spoke from experience; the younger 
possessed the vision. 

So early as 1859, Mr. Tinstman, in partnership with 
Joseph Rist, had bought six hundred acres of coal lands 
and in 1868 had joined Colonel A.S.M. Morgan in open- 
ing the so-called Morgan mines for the manufacture ex- 
clusively of coke. Demand for the product, however, was 
slight and the prospect was far from alluring to a sense 
of mere realities. Back in 1842, loaded barges had been 
floated down the Ohio River in a vain attempt to find a 
market for the despised ‘‘cinders’’; in 1860 the total num- 
ber of coking plants in the country had increased to 
twenty-one from four in 1850; but in 1870 only four more 
had been added. As an industry, “mining and coking”’ 
seemed not merely doomed but already to have perished. 

29 


Frick the Man 


But Mr. Tinstman had so much money invested that 
he could not afford to abandon hope and young Frick’s 
odd compound of prudence and daring succumbed to 
two considerations: one, of his judgment convinced by 
thorough investigation that coke was the cheapest, if 
not indeed an essential, fuel for furnaces; the other, of 
his imagination which had been fired by contemplation 
of the huge requirements of the steel factories whose 
quick and tremendous expansion in Pittsburgh he had 
foreseen while not wholly engrossed in selling ribbons 
and trimmings. 

The outcome of the deliberations of the cousins was 
a decision to take the plunge if two or three satisfactory 
partners could be obtained. Mr. Tinstman proposed Mr. 
Joseph Rist, his associate in previous purchases, and 
young Frick suggested his distant cousin, Mr. John S.R. 
Overholt, who was then courting and a year later mar- 
tied his sister, Miss Maria Overholt Frick. Both accepted 
and the interests were divided into fifths, Mr. Rist tak- 
ing two-fifths and the others one each. 

The first purchase was of one hundred and twenty- 
three acres of land at Broadford, carefully selected, from 
Mr. John Rist for the sum of $52,995. Just how Clay 
financed his first business undertaking, involving $z0,- 
599, is not known. His salary in Pittsburgh, averaging 
seven dollars a week, could hardly have exceeded his 
high cost of living, and his saving from compensation at 
Broadford at $1,000 year for only a year and five months 
could have been no more than a few hundreds at most. 
Clearly, his initial venture was made on borrowed money, 

30 


veri 


iy 


3 
bes 


JOHN S. R. OVERHOLT 


(Brother-in-law) 


Frick the Man 


Overholt, his two uncles, and Jacob O. Tinstman, his 
cousin, loaned trust funds to the young man upon his 
promissory notes and when, in 1874, they received from 
the executors $37,000, they loaned him the entire amount, 
payable three years after date. Before his note fell due, 
however, the trustees became involved in the panic and, 
at their own instigation, the Court discharged them and 
paid eloquent testimony to Clay Frick’s reputation for in- 
tegrity by appointing him, the only debtor of the estate, 
its sole trustee. 

While exhausting the available resources of the mater- 
nal side, moreover, Clay did not overlook parental po- 
tentialities. John W. Frick was only a struggling farmer, 
but with the aid of his capable and thrifty Overholt wife 
he ‘‘managed,’’ in the proud phrase uttered frequently 
in after years by his highly successful son, “‘to bring up 
six children without running into debt’ —a circumstance 
of utmost importance, as it subsequently developed, to 
the young man himself in his time of need. 

Although father and son, owing partly to their natural 
reticence and partly to the overshadowing Overholt as- 
sociation, were never on terms of close intimacy, their 
relationship was always friendly and their spirits were 
akin in dash and daring. One may readily believe that 
the relatively unlettered farmer contemplated with ad- 
miration approaching awe the recognized proficiency of 
the youthful accountant while yet in his teens and the 
readiness with which older men of experience not only 
took him into full partnership but constituted him head 
of the firm when he was barely twenty-one. That the 

32 


JOHN wW. FRICK 


(Father) 


* 
j 
o 
% 
2 
f a 


Beginning Business in Coke 


explicit confidence of the entire Overholt clan in the 
promise of the young man was shared by his father, no 
less than by his mother, is certain; else he would hardly 
have consented to the placing of his wife’s entire inherit- 
ance at the boy’s disposal. 

But John Frick went further. He did unhesitatingly for 
Clay what he had steadfastly refrained from doing for 
himself; he pledged his credit without stint, risking 
bankruptcy and the loss of his eight-thousand-dollar farm 
by endorsing notes, which the budding financier peddled 
to all the farmers around, “‘often hitching up at dawn 
and driving all over the country and coming back at 
night with pockets full of greenbacks.’’ The sums thus 
gathered, though small as units, were considerable in the 
aggregate at a time when fright was inducing the hoard- 
ing at home of moneys which ordinarily would have 
reached the banks. 

Occasionally, too, the amounts involved were far from 
negligible, and renewals, even in part, were far from cer- 
tain. One instance indicating the peril of the time and 
the hazard of the undertaking is distinctly recalled. On 
a critical evening in 1873 Clay returned from his quest 
throughout the country with unexpectedly meager pick- 
ings. On the following day a note for $10,000 was pay- 
able to Joseph Myers, a framer by trade, a portion of the 
anticipated proceeds being needed in his business and the 
total constituting his entire savings—facts of which the 
debtor was only too painfully aware. 

Disappointed beyond measure, and wearied to the verge 
of exhaustion, the young man could not fail to realize 

33 


Frick the Man 


that for the first time even his extraordinary fertility of 
resource had failed utterly; sleep would not come; he 
must have it out. One o’clock in the morning found him 
pounding the door of his creditor, whom he knew but 
slightly and who had been magnified by his imagination 
to the figure of an ogre. Mr. Myers raised the window of 
his bedroom. 

‘“Who’s there? What do you want?”’ 

“Clay Frick. My note is due tomorrow and I can’t 
pay it.”’ 

‘Well, it’s endorsed.”’ 

‘I know, but B. F. O. (Benjamin Overholt) is busted 
and A. O. T. (Abraham O. Tinstman) is busted and I 
don’t want you to close me out.”’ 

Silence—and then: 

‘John Frick is still on the back of that note and he 
ain't busted; he’ll pay some time. I won't close you out.” 

Slam! | 

Presently Clay was able to pay enough to relieve his 
creditor of embarrassment in carrying on his business and 
when, two years later, he took the last instalment to 
Mr. Myers, he said simply: 

‘That was the best investment I ever made’’—and he 
added quietly: 

‘‘It may prove to be the same for you.”’ | 

Not only on this occasion but much earlier, in the 
course of his family financing, Clay had utilized his father’s 
credit to even greater subsequent advantage in catrying 
through his ambitious projects. On December rst, 1871, 
only nine months after he bought one-fifth interest in 

34 


Beginning Business in Coke 


the firm “‘on a shoestring,’’ John Frick joined him in the 
purchase from the executors of Abraham Overholt’s estate 
the Alexander Miller farm, comprising 189 acres and 34 
perches, in East Huntingdon township. 

This transaction called for skilful manoeuvering. The 
executors were willing to accept joint notes of father 
and son for two-thirds of the purchase price of $37,- 
842.50, payable respectively one and two years there- 
after, but they demanded $12,514.16 in cash, and neither 
Frick pére nor Frick fils had any money. Nevertheless 
the requirement was met on the date fixed from the pro- 
ceeds of the following note: 
$12514 16100 Mt. Pleasant, Penna. 

One day after date we promise to pay M. S. Overholt, C. S. Over- 
holt and J. O. Tinstman, Trustees of Elizabeth Frick’s portion of 
A. Overholt’s decd estate, or order, Twelve thousand five hundred 


and fourteen dollars and sixteen cents, without defalcation, value 
received with interest from December rst, 1871. 


Joun W. Frick 
H. Cray Frick 


That is to say, the farm was acquired from the execu- 
tors of Abraham Overholt’s estate with money provided 
in part by the trustees of Elizabeth Overholt Frick’s 
share in that estate. Three years later Clay completed the 
Operation on his own account by purchasing his father’s 
undivided interest at an advance of several thousand 
dollars and, his estimate of the value of the land for 
mining purposes having then been verified, he was enabled 
to obtain his first mortgage loan from T. Mellon & Sons, 
the foremost bankers of Pittsburgh, upon the farm as 
sole security, and thus not only escaped the bankruptcy 
og 


Frick the Man 


which engulfed his partners but paved the way for the 
purchase of many other properties at panic prices. 

This, however, was not his first financial transaction 
with the bankers. The selection of a name for the firm 
confronted the partners at the outset and called for seri- 
ous deliberation. Mr. Tinstman and Mr. Rist were men 
of affairs and standing in the community but their identi- 
fication with other enterprises of like nature seemed 
likely to prove confusing if heralded in connection with 
a new concern whose complete independence, it was 
thought, would constitute an asset. Overholt was, of 
course, a name to conjure with, but John S. R. did not 
wish to assume the responsibility. The process of elim- 
ination clearly pointed to the most youthful partner, and 
the appearance of “‘Frick & Co,’’ as miners of coal and 
manufacturers of coke was thus signalized to the indus- 
trial world. 

The designation was both fitting and shrewd, afford- 
ing the recognition which the elders considered the just 
due of the initiator of the enterprise and also assuring 
unremitting application of the zeal and resourcefulness 
which he had already displayed. Young Frick neither 
sought nor shirked the responsibility, conditioning only 
that he should have full authority under the nominal 
direction, for a time at least, of an Overholt, namely his 
Cousin John, as the head of the firm, and that in lieu of 
drawing a salary as manager, he himself should be free 
to continue his bookkeeping for A. Overholt & Co. for 
the twenty dollars a week which he needed for his liv- 
ing expenses and was loath, in any case, to forego. Natu- 

36 


Beginning Business in Coke 


rally Mr. Tinstman and Mr. Rist found this arrangement 
wholly to their liking and Mr. Overholt accepted his 
assignment for one year, at the expiration of which he 
withdrew from the business entirely, chiefly as a conse- 
quence of apprehensiveness caused by an excavation which 
neatly resulted in the burial alive of thirty miners. 

The young manager adopted a bold policy at the out- 
set. Determined that the firm should profit to the full 
extent of its means in whatever enhancement of values 
might result from its operations, he invested its entire 
capital in low-priced land. This left no money whatever 
for development but the purchases had been so shrewdly 
made that additional funds were readily obtainable upon 
the original basis and, though not regarding the meth- 
od as altogether prudent, his partners raised no objec- 
tions. Indeed it is quite conceivable that they would have 
been willing to increase their own contributions. 

But there was nothing further from the manager’s con- 
templation than an enlargement of partnership which 
would reduce automatically his own percentage of inter- 
est in the business. Why not finance the firm, as he had 
financed his own fifth, on credit? True, the firm, unlike 
himself in the first instance, had no family resources to 
draw upon, but it had a considerable acreage of promis- 
ing coal lands which he had insisted upon keeping free 
and clear of purchase-mortgages with this very purpose 
in view. The difficulty lay in inducing local investors to 
make straight loans without participation in ownership 
or future profits. Clearly, his first step was to establish 
the credit of the firm by demonstrating its ability to bor- 

a7 


Frick the Man 


row money elsewhere and, if possible, from the most 
cautious and conservative of lenders. He decided to make 
the attempt and, while about it, to fly high. 

Among the Scotch-Irish settlers in Westmoreland 
county was Andrew Mellon, who followed his father 
from the county Tyrone in 1818 and brought with him 
his son Thomas, aged five. He acquired a farm in Frank- 
lin Township and remained there until 1833, when he 
moved to Allegheny County, where ultimately he died. 
One of the first to make his acquaintance was Abraham 
Overholt, who was of the same age, thirty-four, and of 
like disposition and tastes. The two became excellent 
friends and young Thomas was a frequent caller, with 
his father, at the big brick house in which Elizabeth 
Overholt was born six years later than himself and be- 
came a big girl of fourteen before he went away with 
his father, at the age of twenty, fully cognizant of the 
intrinsic worth and high standing of Mr. Overholt. 

To doubt that this interesting bit of local history 
~ loomed large in the mind’s eye of Elizabeth Overholt’s 
son while he was groping for financial succor would be 
to question the activities of resourceful intelligence. Dut- 
ing the thirty-eight years that had elapsed Thomas Mel- 
lon had never missed a step on the high road to success. 
Endowed with a remarkable blend of Scotch and Irish 
traits, studious, thoughtful, philosophical, indefatiga- 
ble, prudent and thrifty, he easily acquired a substantial 
fortune, chiefly from sagacious speculations in real estate, 
while simultaneously gaining such pre-eminence at the 
Pittsburgh bar that the leaders of the Republican party 

38 


Beginning Business in Coke 


virtually demanded that he become a candidate for as- 
sistant Judge of the Common Pleas. 

Professional pride having triumphed over the satis- 
faction of making money and the requirement of a per- 
sonal outlay of $150 for campaign expenditures, he was 
duly elected and served with marked distinction for ten 
years when he declined a renomination in order that he 
might “‘engage in plans and projects for Thomas and 
James while watching over the development of my younger 
boys, Andrew, Dick and George,’’ aged respectively four- 
teen, eleven and nine. 

Not caring to resume the practice of law, “having now 
too many pecuniary and other interests of my own to 
make it profitable to attend to the affairs of other people,”’ 
Judge Mellon “began to cast about for a new vocation” 
and finally “concluded to open a banking house.”’ His 
two elder sons having already founded a prosperous joint 
stock savings bank at East Liberty, the father estab- 
lished an institution of his own for the prospective use 
of the “boys” and opened the doors of a building on 
Smithfield Street on January 1st, 1870. The venture proved 
successful from the start. General business was flourish- 
ing, speculation was rife, money was abundant, rates of 
interest to borrowers were high and satisfactory deposits 
were obtained without solicitation. Within a year the 
‘Mellon bank,”’ operating in conjunction with the sav- 
ings institution at East Liberty, was recognized as one 
of the most important in Western Pennsylvania. 

This was the situation when, one morning, late in 
1871, H. Clay Frick, aged twenty-one, without announc- 

39 


Frick the Man 


ing his purpose to anybody, quietly boarded a train at 
the village station for Pittsburgh to negotiate a loan de- 
signed to serve for the time being as working capital for 
the budding firm of Frick & Co. Proceeding straightway 
to the new building then in process of construction for 
the use of the bank, he announced that he had come from 
Broadford ‘‘to see Judge Mellon on a matter of business’ ’ 
and was admitted promptly. 

What actually happened at this momentous meeting, 
the eventual fruits of which garnered by each comprised 
many millions, has never been revealed but can readily 
be imagined. A more courtly old gentleman never re- 
ceived a politer young one. One can almost see him, in 
his long frock coat, gleaming shirt front and black bow, 
rising with judicial dignity, and motioning his boyish- 
looking, brown-haired visitor, equally handsome as of a 
later generation and no less immaculately attired, to a 
chair. And nobody who ever met the latter can fail to 
picture with assured accuracy the wholly deferential, 
_ though anything but obsequious, manner in which he 
introduced himself as the grandson of Abraham Over- 
holt, the son of John W. Frick and Elizabeth Overholt 
and the partner of John S. R. Overholt, Abraham O. 
Tinstman and Joseph Rist and set forth in precise terms 
the purpose of his mission, to wit: } 

Frick & Co. wished to borrow $10,000 for six months 
at 10 per cent, with which to build fifty coke ovens, 
upon security consisting of undeveloped but unmortgaged 
coal lands and of his strong conviction, based upon re- 
sults of personal investigation which he outlined in 

40 


Beginning Business in Coke 


painstaking detail, that the coking process was an es- 
sential factor in the fabrication of steel. 

It is more than doubtful that any other banker in 
Pittsburgh would have entertained the proposal for a 
moment, but Judge Mellon, the most cautious and con- 
servative of them all, made the loan at once, without re- 
quiring endorsements, authorization or corroboration of 
the young man’s statements from his partners. 

“He just got it on his nerve,’’ was the common inter- 
pretation when he returned to Broadford on the first 
train with the money in his pocket. 

But did he? Judge Mellon was not impulsive; he was 
notably cautious. That he was favorably impressed by 
the terse representations, direct methods and engaging 
manners of his confident young customer may well be 
believed, but his trust reposed in Overholt integrity and, 
though wholly devoid of sentimentality, there lay deep 
in his nature a grain of fine sentiment that might have 
been touched by recollection of his father’s friend of his 
own boyhood days. But the interesting circumstance can- 
not be ignored that, while arranging to go on the bench, he 
had invested all of his “loose means” in coal lands which 
might be enhanced in value immensely if some zealous 
and intelligent young man should devise at his own ex- 
pense ‘‘a coking process’’ that should prove indispensable 
to the steel industry. One might almost suspect that 
Clay had not failed, before attempting to plough the 
hardest ground in sight, to acquaint himself with the 
peculiarities of the soil and to select with care the seed 
best adapted to its tillage. 

41 


Frick the Man 


But Frick & Co. were both active and impatient. Be- 
fore the first fifty ovens were finished, while the con- 
struction force was still intact, the manager sought an 
additional loan of $10,000 for the building of fifty more. 
This time Judge Mellon’s prudence asserted itself and a 
representative of the bank was sent to Broadford to in- 
vestigate and report. The representations respecting both 
the property and the construction were found correct in 
every detail, but the attendant features were far from 
satisfactory. | 

It was, to begin with, a very small enterprise and evi- 
dences of prosperity were not visible. Not only was the 
sole responsible director hardly more than a boy, but he 
was giving part of his time to keeping books for a big 
store and another portion to ‘prints and sketches, ‘some 
made by himself, and all quite out of place in his “‘half- 
office and half-living room in a clapboard shack.’’ The 
application should be denied. 

But the wise Judge was unconvinced. In point of fact, 
nothing could have appealed more strongly to his own 
thrifty soul than the information that the young man 
was saving the firm’s money by working overtime out- 
side to earn his own frugal living. More interested than 
ever, he sent his mining partner, Mr. James B. Corey, to 
make an independent examination. The report of that 
experienced observer was terse and decisive: 

“Lands good, ovens well built; manager on job all 
day, keeps books evenings, may be a little too enthusi- 
astic about pictures but not enough to hurt; knows his 
business down to the ground; advise making the loan.”’ 

42 


Beginning Business in Coke 


Judge Mellon accepted Mr. Corey’s recommendation; 
the additional fifty ovens were built and put into opera- 
tion; business was good from the start; the Mellon loans 
were paid from earnings; steadily increasing profits were 
invested in more lands and more ovens and, within two 
yeats after the partnership was formed, Frick & Co. 
were close upon the heels of A.S. M. Morgan & Co., who 
were supposed to be making large profits. 

Then out of a clear sky came the financial collapse and 
industrial crash of a nation which brought to Henry 
Clay Frick, in his twenty-fourth year, the supreme ordeal, 
with one exception, of his remarkable career. 


43 


IV 
A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


HE panic of 1873 was not foreseen. Beginning 
with the completion of the Union Pacific rail- 
way in 1869, the opening up of the Middle 
West, long delayed by the Civil War, gained tre- 
mendous momentum. During the preceding three years 
less than six thousand miles of additional track had 
been laid but in the four years following new construc- 
tion leaped to twenty-four thousand. Demand for rails 
so far exceeded the domestic supply that recourse was 
had to England to make up the deficiency and “‘the vil- 
est trash that could be dignified by the name of iron” 
was gteedily accepted by the eager promoters. Prices 
responded inevitably, profits increased accordingly, ex- 
pansion of mills was limited only by possibilities of 
construction, employment at high wages awaited every 
laborer, settlers rushed by lake and land to the fresh 
fields, immigration increased rapidly and prosperity was 
universal. | 
Although specie payments had not been resumed, pub- 
lic credit endangered by the greenback movement was 
restored and the confidence of the world was regained 
immediately following the second inauguration of Presi- 
dent Grant by the Act of March 18, 1869, pledging pay- 
ment in coin of all obligations not specifically redeemable 
44 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


otherwise and promising redemption of the legal tenders 
in coin as soon as practicable. 

Money, though hardly plentiful, became easy forth- 
with and the bourses of Europe vied with one another 
in bidding for American securities. Railway bonds in 
particular sold abroad like hot cakes and the New York 
and Philadelphia bankers were not backward in supply- 
ing the markets and raking off big commissions from 
enterprises of doubtful merit. So great a bull movement 
in foreign securities had never been known on the Euro- 
pean exchanges and speculation in all kinds of schemes 
was correspondingly rife at home. All lessons from ex- 
perience were forgotten, all precedents were ignored; a 
new efa initiated by a new country seemed to have been 
ushered into the old world. 

The certainty, which should have been patent, if not 
glaring, that there must be a bottom even of Europe’s 
well of opulence was manifested clearly enough in the 
autumn of 1872, when the demand began to slacken and 
the New York bankers found themselves obliged to strain 
their own credit to carry their latest undertakings, but 
nothing beyond a general tightening of money really 
happened until a panic on the Vienna bourse in May, 
1873, sent shivers of apprehension down the spines of 
Continental investors and virtually closed the doors upon 
new offerings from the States. | 

But, even so, American bankers and brokers, uncon- 
sciously perhaps screening the thought with the wish, 
and yet with sincerity unquestioned by history, scoffed 
at the obvious warning as a false alarm and proved their 

4§ 


Frick the Man 


faith by continuing and increasing their commitments. 
A few failures early in September caused “‘an unsettled 
feeling’’ but were not considered seriously significant and 
when, on September 18th, announcement was made that 
the great and goodly House of Jay Cooke and Co., finan- 
ciers not only of the Northern Pacific railway but also, 
throughout the war, of the Government itself, and cus- 
todians of the funds of millions of the most pious folk in 
the land, had failed, ‘‘it was received with almost deri- 
sive incredulity on the part of the mercantile public.”’ 

The panic that followed confirmation of the report was 
instantaneous and unprecedented in manifestations of 
frenzy and terror. Stocks on the Exchange, following 
New York Central and Western Union, the two least 
vulnerable, fell to inconceivable levels in a few hours; 
within the next few days a score of firms wete avowedly 
unable to keep their contracts; bids were not forthcom- 
ing for shares at any prices and the Exchange was closed; 
the old Union Trust Company suspended; the National 
Bank of the Commonwealth failed; Fisk & Hatch, Howes 
and Macy, Henry Clews & Co., and many lesser banking 
houses put up their shutters; deposits were withdrawn 
from national banks; runs began on savings banks; money 
was unobtainable; Clearing-House certificates were is- 
sued for the first time; President Grant and the Secretary 
of the Treasury went to New York and pledged all aid 
the Government could give under the laws. 

And yet itis not surprising that the far-reaching and de- 
moralizing effects bound to ensue from such a shock to the 
financial center of the country found slight comprehension 

46 


MRS. JOHN W. FRICK 


(Mother) 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


beyond the Alleghenies. A mere “Wall Street panic,’’ 
presumably involving only gamblers in money, stocks 
and bonds, was no concern of those actively engaged in 
legitimate industry and wholly engrossed in their own 
affairs. They had no interest in the cut-throat games of 
kid-gloved and silk-stockinged parasites who, produc- 
ing nothing themselves, fought over the fruits of the 
toilsome enterprises of honest men and were regarded as 
natural enemies. What mattered it if ruin should over- 
take the rascals? Good enough for them! Theupset might 
teach them a lesson. It would be all over in a month any- 
way. The United States had struck its gait at last and 
was too big to be stopped or retarded. On with the work! 
Full steam ahead ! 

Even Judge Mellon, who recalled distinctly the pre- 
cisely analogous panic of 1819, following the war of 1812, 
and the widespread adversity that ensued for ten years, 
imposing a most desperate struggle for very existence 
upon his own parents, perceived no serious significance 
for Pittsburgh in the failure of Jay Cooke & Co. 

“While I was seated at my desk on the afternoon of 
September 18th,’’ he wrote long afterward, ‘‘our notary 
public, Mr. Whitney, looked in and asked if I had heard 
of it. I replied no. He said it had caused a good deal of 
excitement in New York and Philadelphia. The news did 
not disturb me, indeed it scarce attracted my attention, 
as we had no relations with Cooke or his railroad pro- 
jects; and I supposed the flurry caused by it would blow 
over without any serious effect, as it had done after sim- 
ilar failures of others.’’ 

47 


Frick the Man 


This pleasurable anticipation naturally was not realized. 
Not only did the strain become more severe daily in the 
large money centers; it spread rapidly over the country 
and reached Pittsburgh within a week. T. Mellon & Sons 
had substantial balances in New York and Philadelphia 
but ‘‘unfortunately our depositories in both these cities 
failed before we could secure our funds” and the Judge 
awoke to the disagreeable fact that they had in their 
two banks barely sixty thousand dollars with which to 
meet deposits of ten times that amount, ‘‘Our customers, 
however, were not aware of our predicament and no one 
entertained the slightest apprehension of our solvency 
as I was always looked on as impregnable.”’ 

But the consternation caused throughout the entire 
region by several bank failures can readily be imagined, 
and nowhere within the Pittsburgh orbit was it felt 
more deeply than in the humming little village of Broad- 
ford and by the members of the firm of Frick & Co. Mr. 
Tinstman and Mr. Rist required all of their resources to 
safeguard their other investments and could not be re- 
lied upon to render any assistance whatever to their 
latest speculation. More definitely and comprehensively 
than ever, the entire burden devolved upon the manager. 
Having taken over unhesitatingly—on credit, as usual— 
his cousin’s share, he now held a two-fifths interest, and 
was giving his undivided attention to the conduct of the 
business for the same modest remuneration that he had 
received for keeping the books of Overholt & Co. He 
still owed money right and left but having always paid 
full interest promptly, and never defaulted, renewals 

48 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


were obtained easily and profitable expansion upon a 
large scale seemed to be well within the range of finan- 
cial possibilities in the near future. 

Meanwhile, the Wall Street panic had run its course, 
the stock exchange had reopened and the machinery of 
finance had begun to function as smoothly as ever. Upon 
the whole, the prospect, though far from reassuring, was 
less dismal than it had appeared at first and Manager 
Frick returned from a hurried visit to Pittsburgh fairly 
well convinced that he had only to postpone his more 
ambitious projects for a time in order to keep his head 
above water and weather the storm. In any case, grit- 
ting his teeth, he would not let go of anything he had 
and would continue unwaveringly to assume any kind 
or form of obligation required to obtain whatever in ad- 
dition might seem worth having. 

It was more than double or quits; it was a hundred- 
fold or less than nothing; either a tremendous success or 
an overwhelming collapse even of hope. 

This grim determination was not unnatural to a re- 
doubtable spirit, uplifted by the buoyancy of youth, 
which thus far had overcome all obstacles, but it is 
incredible that Clay Frick, at twenty-four, foresaw either 
the severity or the duration of his undertaking. What 
he, in common with all experienced observers and learned 
economists, failed to perceive was that the real disaster 
did not end, but only began, in Wall Street and that the 
money panic was but a prelude and a bagatelle to the 
industrial crisis that was bound to follow. 

Revelation of the bitter truth came quickly and no- 

49 


Frick the Man 


where more poignantly than to western Pennsylvania. 
As early as November ist several railway companies of 
high repute defaulted in payment of interest on their 
bonds; soon thereafter the Pennsylvania Railroad paid its 
dividend in scrip; the paper of a construction company 
bearing the endorsements of Vice-President Thomas A. 
Scott and his associates went to protest; new construc- 
tion practically ceased and even ordinary maintenance 
contracts were cancelled; iron mills were shut down and 
‘‘reduced to the value of a scrap heap’’; coal mines were 
abandoned; laborers began to walk the streets in vain 
seatch of employment; strikes and lockouts presaged the 
great railway riots to come; ‘‘a veritable paralysis,’’ in 
the words of Rhodes, possessed Pittsburgh. 

Inevitably the demand for coke began to dwindle and 
as early as the Spring of 1874 seemed likely to disappear 
altogether. Theretofore marketing of the superior prod- 
ucts of the Connellsville mines had been a simple matter; 
commission merchants in Pittsburgh had eagerly accepted 
and readily disposed of all that was offered; the manu- 
facturers had only to load the cars and await remit- 
tances at fixed rates. A few orders continued to trickle 
through but at prices which did not equal the bare cost 
of production and diminished so greatly in volume that 
many dealers could no longer afford to maintain their 
offices and abandoned business entirely. Disposal of their 
coke upon any terms soon became a problem for the 
manufacturers even more serious than producing it at a 
loss and, gradually, one after another, the mines were 
shut down. | 


50° 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


“It was,’’ said Mr. Frick nearly half a century later, 
‘an awful time.”’ 

Frick & Co., practically alone, stubbornly persisted. 
Calculating with his usual precision that deteriora- 
tion from disuse of a new plant would far exceed the 
difference between cost and revenue, at even as low as 
ninety cents a ton, and that readiness to meet demands 
promptly upon resumption of a profitable basis would 
give the firm an enormous advantage Over its competi- 
tors, the manager decided to become his own sales agent 
and, going to Pittsburgh, hired an office, on his promise 
to pay. 

Thereafter, through the Spring and torrid Summer, he 
‘got up at six, looked over the ovens and set things go- 
ing, took the train for Pittsburgh at seven, reached his 
office at ten, ‘legged it’ from factory to factory soliciting 
orders till three, reached home at about six, and at- 
tended to the details of mining till bedtime.’’ 

But his training behind the counter stood him in good 
stead and whatever market there was for Connellsville 
coke he soon obtained for Frick & Co., and although it 
was said that he always held his customers, changes 
were frequent as mills opened or closed, and unremitting 
attention was essential to the disposal of his product. 
Occasionally he was obliged to remain at home to scurry 
around among the farmers for savings, which then had 
become most meager, with which to make up the deficit 
from operation. The $37,000 which he borrowed from 
the trustees of his mother’s portion constituted an excel- 
lent backlog but was waning rapidly in partial payments 

51 


Frick the Man 


for additional lands when his fertile mind evolved a 
truly dashing stroke. 

A year or two before, the community had furnished 
money for the building of a ten-mile railroad from Broad- 
ford to Mt. Pleasant to connect with the Baltimore and 
Ohio and facilitate the marketing of coke. The invest- 
ment brought satisfactory returns while business was 
good, but dividends had ceased and bankruptcy was 
threatening when the traffic was reduced practically to 
the Frick shipments. The stockholders, moreover, were 
in desperate straits and eager to sell their shares, not 
merely to avert complete loss, but to save their mort- 
gaged homes. Conditions were approaching a crisis and 
stoppage of the little railway’s operation, which might 
in turn enforce closing of the mines, seemed imminent. 
What to do, what could be done, to avert this peril, was 
the question perplexing the manager on his way home 
from Pittsburgh one afternoon when suddenly, after hav- 
ing discarded every conceivable solution, he hit upon an 
outside chance and decided to take it while there was 
yet time for successful negotiation. 

During the evening he obtained a list of the stock- 
holders, who were widely scattered, and prepared op- 
tions for the signatures; then very early in the morning, 
he borrowed Captain Markle’s fast gray single-footer, 
which subsequently he purchased, and set forth, return- 
ing late at night worn and weary but hopefully happy, 
with the options in his pockets. 

On the next day but one, the management of the Balti- 
more and Ohio railroad were notified that there was a 


§2 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


young man outside who was ina position to sell them a 
railroad which he thought they would want to acquire 
promptly upon terms, for the moment, most favorable. 
The very audacity of such a proposal, at a time when 
even the biggest railroads were not buying even the littlest 
ones, probably won an audience. Whereupon Mr. H. 
Clay Frick, of Broadford, Penn., accomplished sales- 
man, calmly exhibited his goods in the form of options 
upon a property of marked strategic importance, frankly 
conceded its present undesirability from the standpoint 
of earning capacity but expatiated at length upon vast 
development plans of the coking industry which could 
not fail to enhance its value enormously, both intrin- 
sically and as a feeder, which might otherwise be di- 
verted to another trunk line, dwelt briefly upon the ex- 
traordinarily low price at which, owing to temporarily 
distressful conditions, it could be obtained, and confi- 
dently awaited their acceptance at actual cost plus a 
commission for himself as negotiator and intermediary 
of fifty thousand dollars. 

No alternative proposition could be entertained and he 
should consider himself free to withdraw the offer at the 
expiration of forty-eight hours. His address was H. C. 
Frick of Frick & Co., Broadford, Pennsylvania, the only 
firm in the Connellsville region then producing coke in 
quantity. If they should wish for anything in his line in 
the near future, he should be happy to meet their agents 
with a guaranty of full supply at satisfactory prices. 

The transaction was consummated within the specified 
time; the stockholders were duly compensated greatly 

53 


Frick the Man 


to their relief; the feeder surpassed all expectations in 
earning capacity for the purchasing company within 
three years; Frick & Co. were assured adequate transpor- 
tation; and Clay received a check for $50,000, a large 
part of which he promptly invested in more lands and 
more ovens while holding the remainder in reserve for 
possible contingencies. | 

Not least among the helpful effects of this successful 
negotiation was the strengthening of the favorable opinion 
already held by Judge Mellon of the capabilities of his 
youthful customer. That it helped to facilitate the mak- 
ing of his first mortgage loan, from the proceeds of which 
he was enabled not only to purchase freight cars, costing 
fifteen thousand dollars, for coke shipments over the 
railroad which he had just sold, but also to obtain “a 
line of discount not exceeding twenty-five thousand 
dollars for said Frick or Frick & Co.” appears from the 
recital of his bond. 

Although this was probably the only mortgage pur- 
chased by T. Mellon & Sons during 1874, when the firm 
was striving energetically to sell a portion of its own 
holdings, the circumstance is less noteworthy than it 
would appear, owing to the fact that real estate still 
commanded a market at fair prices. The slump came later. 

“Our sales books,’’ the Judge records, ‘‘show this 
with great exactness. In the first year after the collapse 
we sold more real estate, and at higher prices, than we 
did in the second; more in the second than in the third; 
and so on until 1877, when real estate was unsalable at 
any price, and business of all kinds was equally depressed.’’ 


54 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


Nevertheless, as late as December 4th, 1876, Clay 
Frick induced the bankers to accept a fresh mortgage as 
security for $76,000 advanced and an agreement to dis- 
count business paper not exceeding $24,000, thus fixing 
the sum total of Mellon credits during the bad years at 
$100,000, resting upon 471 acres of land, coal underly- 
ing 143 acres and two town lots in Broadford. 

How much additional acreage he acquired from other 
sources during this period of enforced liquidation can- 
not be ascertained definitely but it must have been con- 
siderable, as he was the sole purchaser in a community 
which had become convinced that the coke industry was 
dead, if not for all time, at least for many years. But his 
Own appetite was insatiable and his supply of promissory 
notes was inexhaustible. Partial payments in cash, how- 
ever, were often required and he quickly perceived that 
the expansion which he craved must soon come to an 
end unless he could devise some method of providing for 
cutrent operating costs. While credit might and did fur- 
nish materials in large part, it could not be utilized by 
workmen to procure the necessaries of life for themselves 
and their families. 

To meet this requirement young Frick literally made 
his own money. 

Soon after beginning business, following the custom 
of the times, he opened a store, for the convenience chiefly 
of the employés of the firm, and utilized his experience 
to make modest profits in competition with others. Hav- 
ing practically no capital available for the enterprise, he 
bought goods from wholesale merchants in Pittsburgh 

55 


Frick the Man 


and, selling for cash, had no difficulty in making pay- 
ments at stated intervals. Consequently, when themoney 
became scarce in1874, and the supply houses were obliged 
to meet the changed conditions in order to keep their 
concerns going, his reputation for prudence and trust- 
worthiness was so well established that continuance of 
his custom upon any reasonable terms was not only wel- 
comed but sought. 

This gratifying situation gave rise to an opportunity 
of which he promptly, ingeniously and somewhat au- 
daciously availed himself by constituting his store a vir- 
tual clearing house and issuing his firm’s certificates in 
substitution for the United States currency which had 
practically disappeared from circulation. His shrewdly 
designed bills were baldly imitative of those which the 
Federal Government had made familiar during and fol- 
lowing the Civil War, of the same size, shape and color, 
and so like, even typographically, that the difference in 
labels, though necessarily distinguishable, was not glar- 
ingly noticeable. The wording was simple, to wit: 


NO. FRICK & CO’S MINES 3 
DUE BEARER IN MERCHANDISE _ 
AT OUR STORE AT 


ONE DOLLAR 
BROADFORD, PA. 1874 


At the left side of the face of the due bill appeared an 
emblematical figure of an attractive female gleaner in 
the fields and in the center a picture of husky laborers 
wielding pickaxes in a mine, both admirably engraved in 

56 


A FRICK DOLLAR BILL 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


the style affected by the Bureau of the Treasury Depart- 
ment. The reverse side was a plain greenback of the light 
official shade. 

These bills were used primarily in payment of wages; 
then by the workmen, at first in purchases at home, but 
soon elsewhere for other purposes, until presently they 
constituted the common currency of the entire com- 
munity; with the result that business increased materially 
at the store, greatly to the satisfaction of the whole- 
salers, and Frick & Co. had the use of all of the pro- 
ceeds received in legal tender from sale of their products, 
barring only the small portion required from time to 
time to extend or to expand their credits in Pittsburgh, 
and the mere cost of printing the good-looking bills. 

A bitter blow fell toward the end of the trying year. 
From the day when he first saw light in the little Spring 
House, beginning with the anxious periods of childhood 
and boyhood and continuing through his aspiring young 
manhood, there can be no doubt that Grandmother Over- 
holt served as his chief guide and sympathizer and when 
his grandfather passed away in the critical year of his 
majority, she succeeded naturally to a position of main 
reliance in his daring adventure. She was in her eighty- 
fourth year when his cousin and partner, Abraham Over- 
holt Tinstman, made these entries in his diary: 


Oct. 11.—Clay and I went to Overton on horseback. Took din- 
ner with Uncle Jacob. Spent part of afternoon with Aunt Abbie. 
Grandmother was very poorly. Fear she cannot live very long. 


Oct. 19.—Came from Uniontown on train. Clay and I went to 
Overton to see Grandma. 


Wi) 


Frick the Man 


Oct. 25.—Clay and I went to see Grandmother. Found her very 
sick with little prospect of living many days. 


Nov. 1.—At Mill Grove, then West Newton. Rode from Con- 
nellsville on horseback. Went to church. Grandma died at 5 p.m. 


Noy. 4.—Was all night at Aunt Abbie’s. Attended Grandmoth- 
er’sfuneral. It was very large. Thus ended the life of a great and 
good woman. 


Clay took his loss grievously. ‘‘He wasn’t the brood- 
ing kind and never showed much of what he felt but he 
couldn’t seem to smile and his eyes were very sad.’’ He 
was ill equipped at the time to bear the blow. Torn men- 
tally by anxiety over his affairs, strained to utmost ca- 
pacity by constant need of finding expedients, physically 
wearied by five hours daily on trains and incessant trudg- 
ing of the streets of Pittsburgh, and worn to a shadow, 
his power of resisting the malady of his youth waned 
with the passing of his mainstay, and further ominous 
entries began to appear in Mr. Tinstman’s diary. 


Jan. 25, 1875.—Clay came home from Williamsport, sick. 

Jan. 26.—Clay is very sick with Inflammatory Rheumatism. Dr. 
Phillips called to see him. 

Jan. 27.—Clay still very sick. 

Jan. 28.—Clay no better. Uncle C. S. Oreshelt here again. 

Jan. 29.—Clay is a little better, but very sick and restless. 

Jan. 30.—Clay not so well today as yesterday. He is very sick. 

Feb. 2.—I wrote Dr. Phillips (Connellsville) to get Dr. Fuller 
Cof Uniontown). He did. They had a consultation. They say Clay 
is in a critical condition. 

Feb. 3.—Clay no better. Was with him most of the day. 

Feb. 4.—Clay not any better. Think he is not as well as he was. 
I telegraphed for Dr. Dixon, Fuller and Phillips again this after- 
noon. Dixon came in the evening. Frank came in the evening. 
Clay is very low. They don’t think he can get well. 


58 


MRS. ABRAHAM OVERHOLT 
(Grandmother) 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


Feb. 5.—Dixon, Fuller and Phillips were all here in the morn- 
ing. They all agreed that he was some better, think he may get 
well. I was home all day and up with Clay last night. 

Feb. 6.—Clay still improving slowly. 

Feb. 7.—Was with Clay all night; is still improving but very 
weak. 

Feb. 8.—Clay better but not able to sit up yet. 

Feb. 9.—Clay not doing very well. Is getting a little trouble- 
some, wants to eat. 

Feb. 14.—Washed and dressed Clay and left him feeling better. 

Feb. 17.—Came over from Philadelphia last night. Arrived 
Pittsburgh 8 A.M. Spent day there. Home in evening—found Clay 
better. 

Feb. 19.—Clay still improving. 

March 9.—Clay was at the office for the first time in six weeks. 

March 10.—Clay and I walked up to Morgan’s mines. 

March 12.—Clay and I went to Pittsburgh. C. S. O. was with 
us. This was Clay’s first trip for seven weeks. We talked of con- 
solidating Frick and Company and Morgan and Company. 

March 14.—Clay came to Connellsville on horseback, and I 
walked home with him (he on horseback). 

_ March 21.—Clay did not get up until after 11 A.M. He got quite 
sick and had to stay in his chair all day. 

Match 25.—Clay and I went to Pittsburgh on accommodation 
train. Met Cassius C. Markle with Morgan and Company offer 
to organize stock company. 


The proposed consolidation of the Morgan and Frick 
companies did not take place. Clay discovered quickly 
that while, during his seven weeks of illness, his own 
small organization had functioned satisfactorily, the 
friendly rival concern had become so widely extended 
and so deeply involved that he could not see his way 
clear to shoulder the additional burden without gravely 
imperilling the property which he had built up and now 
deemed fairly secure. 

59 


Frick the Man 


Doubtless his enfeebled condition was a factor in con- 
sideration but in any case the decision soon proved to 
have been a wise one. Morgan & Co. went steadily from 
bad to worse and the partners were soon driven to last 
resorts. Clay helped to the extent of his ability by pur- 
chasing the interests of Mr. Tinstman and Mr. Rist in 
Frick & Co. and paying all he could raise in cash, but 
Colonel Morgan was unable to produce his larger share 
and the utter collapse that followed showed unmistakably 
that, if Clay had made the combination, his resources 
would have been wholly inadequate and Frick & Co. 
also would have been engulfed in bankruptcy. 

But Mr. Tinstman, a true Overholt, was so far from 
being dismayed by even the loss of all he had in the 
world that he recorded sententiously in his diary: 


July 1.—Married Cornelia Markle. 
Sept. 27.—Went to West Overton. Party at Clay’s house. 


The two cousins remained firm friends and continued 
to be mutually helpful through the lean years following, 
with the result that early in the eighties Mr. Tinstman, 
operating in other fields and profiting from his knowl- 
edge and prescience, not only retrieved his losses but 
acquired a handsome fortune from the very industry 
which seemed to have dragged him to irretrievable ruin. 

It was four years almost to a day, after he began busi- 
ness for himself, when Clay Frick emerged from his sick- 
room and feebly made his way to the familiar office of 
Frick & Co. Somewhat possibly to his surprise and much 
surely to his gratification, he quickly discovered that he 
had builded better than he had imagined. “Bills and 

60 


ABRAHAM O. TINSTMAN 
(Cousin) 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


Accounts Payable’ had not diminished, but neither had 
they increased materially; creditors had considerately 
refrained from pressing demands and had granted renew- 
als willingly; business was proceeding peaceably and, 
of course, unprofitably, as usual; and everybody was un- 
feignedly glad to see him out and about again. 

Congratulatory messages from Pittsburgh in particu- 
lar were most reassuring. Not only was his chief and 
practically sole asset, credit, unimpaired, but apparently 
stronger than ever. He could not help feeling that he had 
won valuable confidence, which in turn promptly be- 
got confidence in himself. While, of course, he had not 
fully established himself as a man of affairs, he was 
clearly on his way; after all, he was only twenty-five 
and—well, ‘‘he went home after a while a little tired, 
but looking pretty happy;”’ and the next day he ‘‘walked 
up to the Morgan mines.”’ 

But the illness which had proved so nearly fatal had 
conveyed a useful warning. Disdainful as he was then, 
and continued through life to be, of restrictions imposed 
by physicians, he recognized the necessity of giving Na- 
ture a chance to aid in restoration of his health. It was 
a favorable time, in any case, to abridge his activities. 
General trade conditions were still very bad and showed 
no signs of early improvement, national finances were 
chaotic as a consequence of continuing inflation, railway 
companies were either bankrupt or destitute of funds and 
iron and steel concerns, deprived of markets, had no use 
for coke. 

Obviously Frick & Co. must bide their time and could 

61 


Frick the Man 


well afford to do so while competitors were going to 
rack and ruin and coal lands were decreasing steadily in 
value. If conditions should remain static or grow worse, 
the firm’s preservation would be easier without addi- 
tional commitments and charges; and if they should take 
a quick turn for the better, the manager was not likely to 
forfeit opportunities through inattentiveness. In either 
event, the firm had only to retain the advantages already 
gained to control the situation. Already, “Connellsville 
coke,’’ asa term for the best variety, had been supplanted 
by ‘‘Frick coke,’’ a trade mark of distinct commercial 
value which still, at the end of half a century, holds its 
supremacy. Presently, moreover, as doubtless he foresaw 
to be inevitable, Clay was to reap in part the rewards 
of four years of incessant toil and desperate struggle, by 
becoming the sole owner of the one really “going” con- 
cern in the district which, unaided, he had created out 
of relatively nothing and held fully prepared to meet in- 
stantaneously the call for tremendous expansion which 
he never doubted was bound to come. 

Content, in these circumstances, to seek physical re- 
cuperation and mental relaxation, Clay spent most of his 
daytime during the Summer of 1875 on the back of the 
horse which he had purchased from Captain Markle for 
twenty-five dollars, following his successful sortie for 
tailway stock options, which had yielded his first ten- 
strike commission of fifty thousand dollars. If he made 
incidental observations of promising coal lands while he 
jogged over the hills, nobody else became the wiser, and 
he made no purchases or offers. After supper he “‘used 

62 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


to go over to the office and take a look at the day’s ac- 
counts and then generally dropped into the Tinstmans'’ 
to play a game of chess with A.O. and tease Cornelia,’ 
and then went home to read till time to go to bed. 
The enforced respite proved highly beneficial. Before 
the year ended his health was fully restored, his weight 
had increased fifteen pounds and open-air exercise had 
contributed to his countenance the ruddy hue which 
never afterward, even while he was recovering from the 
shock of attempted assassination, wholly forsook it. 
The beginning of 1876, signalizing his twenty-seventh 
year, brought a return of normal restiveness; he had 
“‘loafed’’ long enough; so presently, after somewhat pro- 
longed negotiations, he opened a brand new ‘‘Store Day 
Book and Journal—H. Clay Frick’’ and made this initial 
ead Monday, March 20, 1876. 
~ Commenced store business here this day. Bought out stock, fix- 
tures, etc., from E. H. Reid at invoice price and 10% added. 
Amount in all, $5,418.95. Gave my personal note for same. 
Although the store was conducted chiefly for the ac- 
commodation of the neighborhood and the handling of 
pay-rolls and petty accounts for the firm, the balance 
sheet at the end of the year showed holdings of more 
than three hundred thousand dollars in real estate and 
mortgages, representing apparently the proprietor’s per- 
sonal acquisitions in addition to those of the firm. En- 
tries covering renewals, reductions and transfers of 
various promissory notes appear, but none of significance 
until December 14, 1877, when ‘“‘the proceeds of a note 


for $8,400 made by me’’ were advanced to Daniel David- 
63 


Frick the Man 


son and Alfred ‘Patterson, “‘in order to start their business 
properly at Morgan mines.’’ This apparently served to 
hold the property and to put the plant into working 
condition pending resumption of a policy of expansion. 
The plan was simple yet ingenious, namely, to keep in a 
position to complete the purchase and start the only com- 
peting ovens in the district, instantly upon a revival of 
business which would produce profits. 

It seems altogether probable that he could have carried 
through this transaction, as usual, on credit but, partly 
no doubt as a second lesson from his protracted illness, 
he decided to enlist capital instead of borrowing money, 
hoping thereby to obtain the advantage of a useful and 
resourceful partnership. : 

With this purpose in view, he offered and sold an in- 
terest in the business to Mr. E. M. Ferguson, a Pitts- 
burgh capitalist of high standing, completed the ‘“Mor- 
gan investment’’ with the proceeds, supplemented by 
$5,000 on his own account, and on March goth, 1878, re- 
christened the firm ‘‘H. C. Frick & Co.’’ He was now, 
in his twenty-ninth year, fully equipped in experience, 
in physical vigor, in manufacturing capacity and in 
financial backing, to meet all comers in his chosen field 
at the very moment which, with accurate prevision, his 
judgment had foreseen as most propitious. 

He had not long to wait. Financial conditions through- 
out the country had been improving steadily for some 
time and already manufacturers and business men were 
discounting the stabilizing effects of resumption of specie 
payments on the first of the year. New England was 

64 


AT THE AGE OF FOURTEEN 


roe AR 


+ 


A Triumph of Faith and Courage 


peopling the Middle West, whose restive resident set- 
tlers, in turn, were filling up the vast grain territories 
beyond the Mississippi. Renewal upon a large scale of 
immigration which had been severely checked in 1873 
reflected the resuscitation of common faith abroad in the 
future of the States. Austro-Hungary, Bohemia, Italy 
and Poland were sending the vanguard of the great army 
of laborers soon to fill the manufacturing plants. Pitts- 
burgh and Cleveland were pushing Buffalo from tenth to 
thirteenth place in population. 

Nearly five hundred railroads sold under foreclosure 
of mortgages during the preceding three years had been 
reorganized under plans which provided funds for recon- 
struction. Replacement of streaks of rust with new and 
heavy rails suddenly became an absolute necessity of the 
big combinations effected under the lead of the Pennsy]l- 
vania and Vanderbilt systems. 

Iron and steel factories could not resume operations 
rapidly enough to meet the demands. Furnaces yawned 
for fuel. Pittsburgh cried out to Connellsville for coke, 
coke, coke, only to find a single firm producing eighty 
per cent of the entire output and the only one capable of 
quick and tremendous expansion. Ironmasters, no less 
than purchasing agents, flocked in eager competition to 
little Broadford where, at a plain desk in his modest 
office, calmly sat a sturdy, alert, keen-eyed, soft-spoken 
young man of few words but of amazing activities, no 
less surely than unpretentiously conscious of his com- 
plete mastery of the situation. 


He disclosed the condition and expectations of the 
65 


Frick the Man 


firm with entire frankness to one and all alike. The pre- 
vious week's output had been so many tons; the next 
week’s would be so many more from additional ovens; 
further increases would follow steadily from rapid con- 
struction already under way; more than two thousand 
acres of land had been acquired; the plant would com- 
prise nearly one thousand ovens within a year; there was 
no stock on hand for sale at the moment; he would make 
no discrimination between purchasers and no contracts for 
future delivery; he would sell all coke as produced “at the 
market.’ That was all. Clearly, the salesman, no less 
than the manufacturer, as reported five years previously 
by Mr. Corey to Judge Mellon, ‘‘knew his business.”’ 

Already the price had advanced materially from the 
unprofitable ninety cents a ton; it now leaped suddenly 
to two dollars; then to three, again somewhat hesitat- 
ingly to four; and finally to five dollars a ton, of which 
three-fifths was net profit. 

Both production and construction were ruashael to the 
very top notch of capacity; employés numbered nearly a 
thousand and car-loads shipped daily nearly a hundred 
before the year 1879 was ended. 

On the evening of December roth, his thirtieth birth- 
day, Clay Frick dropped into the store on his way home 
from a prolonged game of chess following supper with 
his cousins, took a look at the books preliminary to the 
annual accounting, bought a fresh five-cent Havana cigar 
on credit, lighted it thoughtfully, strolled placidly around 
the corner to the Washabaugh House and went to bed. 

He had made his million. 

66 


% 
Interlude 


HE yeat 1880 opened auspiciously for H. C. 

Prick & Co. Orders were plentiful and business 

was brisk; wages were satisfactory to the 

miners and profits were equally gratifying to 
the firm; the little village of Broadford resounded from 
daylight to dusk with the clanking of freight cars fetch- 
ing building materials and carrying to market every ton 
of precious coke that could be produced ; the whole coun- 
try round, so recently sleepy and despondent, was stirred 
by unceasing activities of farmers and tradesmen; and, 
best of all, not a cloud could be discerned upon the sky 
of widening prosperity. 

Free now for the first time from financial exigencies 
and strengthened in both resources and confidence by 
his partnership, the head of the firm concentrated his 
energies upon the art of organization whose mastery was 
destined to constitute the basis of his subsequent achieve- 
ments. He had little to go upon. The potency of this 
mighty force, except in military undertakings and to a 
limited extent in railway operation, had never been rec- 
ognized in commercial affairs although for centuries it 
had been fully appreciated by the Church of Rome. Great 
industries had flourished abroad, notably in England, 


but rather as segregated units profiting from arduous 
67 


Frick the Man 


endeavors than as aggregations skillfully blended into 
integral agencies designed primarily to attain highest 
efficiency through eliminations of waste. 

That the eye of this young man’s mind should have been 
among the first, if not indeed the very first, to perceive the 
full efficacy of the methodic process whose development 
has given to America its present world supremacy must 
be attributed probably to sheer instinct. Observation 
surely contributed little and experience, at that early day, 
of course, nothing at all. We can only conclude that this 
was one of those rare instances of a correct theory being 
educed contrarily from experimental practice. 

In any case, when Springtime came, the various factors 
of mining, manufacture, transportation and selling had 
been welded into a smoothly-working machine, whose 
essential attributes required only expansion to assure 
the ultimate success of the gigantic steel corporation, 
and the originator of the marvelous system saw his way 
clear to take his first holiday. He had become well ac- 
quainted with Baltimore and Philadelphia and had made 
fleeting excursions as far north as New York and south 
to Washington. The West possessing no lure for a divert- 
ing jaunt of pleasure, he determined to go to Europe if 
a congenial traveling companion could be found. Of 
those available within range of his acquaintance but one 
seemed to meet all requirements. 

And so it came about that one morning early in May 
Clay Frick appeared at the Mellon banking house upon 
a quest quite different from that which had first drawn 
him to that financial haven. He was not now calling 

68 


Interlude 


upon a stranger to solicit aid which he feared might be 
denied but upon a friend to proffer a suggestion which 
he hoped would be accepted. Judge Mellon had with- 
drawn from business in 1878 and had installed as his suc- 
cessor in the bank his son Andrew, who, even before at- 
taining his majority, had evinced exceptional aptitude 
for financial management. Clay was twenty-six and An- 
drew twenty-two at the time of their first meeting in 1876. 
When the former had accomplished the purpose of his 
visit and had left for return to Broadford, the Judge 
turned to his son and said: 

“That young man has great promise. He is very care- 
ful in making statements, always exact and wholly re- 
liable. He is also able, energetic, industrious, resource- 
ful, self-confident, somewhat impetuous and inclined to 
be daring on his own account, but so cautious in his 
dealings with others disposed to take chances that I 
doubt if he would make a successful banker. If he con- 
tinues along his own line as he has begun, he will go far 
unless he over-reaches. That is his only danger.”’ 

Acquaintanceship, enhanced by mutual attraction of 
two somewhat similar, though more distinctively sup- 
plementary, personalities, ripened rapidly into a friend- 
ship and virtual partnership which continued, without 
break or rift, to mutual advantage of amazing proportions, 
for more than forty years. The four years’ difference in 
age and experience received tacit recognition from the 
beginning, partly as the consequence of a slight incident 
which tended to fix the respective personal attitudes of 


each to the other. 
69 


Frick the Man 


Very soon after the two young men had scrutinized 
each other inquiringly, Andrew accepted an invitation to 
“spend Saturday and Sunday’’—the English term ““week- 
end’’ being then unknown in Pittsburgh—at Mt. Pleasant 
and, arriving at his lodgings early in the afternoon, was 
surprised to find his host engrossed in study; surprised 
and somewhat dismayed for the excellent reason that 
‘heavy reading’ had not been comprised in his joys of 
anticipation. Some weeks previously the philosophic 
Judge had become deeply interested in the publication 
of Herbert Spencer’s novel reflections and, owing to fail- 
ing eye-sight, had drawn so heavily during the long eve- 
nings upon the dutiful patience and modulated voice of 
his son that Andrew had gleefully welcomeda respite. 

What, then, must have been his emotions upon dis- 
covering his prospective playfellow confronting a table 
full of books, of which Addison’s Essays and Macaulay's 
History of England were the most conspicuous, while 
closely perusing Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son, may 
readily be imagined. Slightly awestruck by the spectacle 
and overwhelmingly appalled by the prospect, he gulp- 
ingly wished himself back to what had become largely 
a mechanical rendition of Spencerian ontology, but for 
a moment only. The admonitions of the master of man- 
nerliness had not been absorbed in vain; instantly, the 
really charming courtesy, derived from instinct and per- 
fected by cultivation, that became noteworthy in Henry 
Clay Frick, asserted its predominance, and Andrew Mel- 
lon breathed forthwith the atmosphere of frank friend- 
liness untouched by affectation. 


70 


Interlude 


It is nevertheless an interesting circumstance that, 
during the full two-score years of intimate relationship 
which ensued, the most distinguished financier of his 
time invariably addressed his comrade as ‘‘Mr. Frick,”’ 
whilethe latter, with unfailing affectionate note, referred 
to his closest friend and his brother Richard, regardless 
of their years, as ‘‘the Mellon boys.”’ 

Naturally, after three years of close and continuous 
application at his desk, the young banker eagerly wel- 
comed the suggestion of a trip abroad and, having his 
affairs in perfect order as usual, he readily arranged for 
an absence of four months. Presently Clay proposed to 
increase the party by inviting two acquaintances to join 
them. One of those suggested was a popular young man 
who wrote poetry, sang gleefully and told amusing stor- 
ies. Andrew readily assented to this thoughtful provi- 
sion of entertainment enhanced by the desirability of 
having “‘some one along to do the talking.’’ The other 
was an older man, no more loquacious than themselves 
and commonly considered a dull companion. He could 
perceive no advantage from this addition and only ac- 
quiesced doubtfully upon a vague assurance that there 
was a ‘‘special reason’’ for the inclusion. 

So the party of four sailed joyously in June and, land- 
ing at Queenstown in excellent form, reached the Blarney 
Stone on the Fourth of July, when the leader delighted 
his companions by producing an American flag from 
some hiding place and waving it over their heads while 
they performed the customary rite. Thence they jaunted, 
as boys on a lark, to Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Edin- 

71 


Frick the Man 


burgh, London, seeing all the sights, and presently 
crossed to Paris for a brief sojourn, followed by ‘‘a dash 
across the continent’’ to Venice, their objective point. 
Meanwhile, incited by growing wanderlust, the older 
companion conceived the idea of extending his tour 
around the world, and the leader of the expedition gra- 
ciously facilitated the execution of the bold project by 
purchasing his coal lands in the Connellsville region, 
greatly to the advantage of H. C. Frick & Co., and the 
amusement of the young banker who then comprehended 
the mysterious ‘‘special reason’’ for fetching the owner 
of the property along. 

Clay and Andrew returned home in Qesiheis not only 
invigorated mentally and physically but so pleased with 
their experience and cemented attachment that they toured 
Europe together many times. One effect of the initial trip 
was arousal of the former’s interest in the other sex as a 
consequence of his admiration of the attractive daughter 
of an American banker in Paris, resulting in an under- 
standing which proved, however, upon his return, to have 
been only tentative and was soon tacitly ignored by mu- 
tual assent. But the inclination persisted; moreover, he 
was approaching thirty and the question of future do- 
mesticity called for grave attention, as his young friend 
was soon to learn. 

The season of 1880-81 was noteworthy for social activ- 
ities in the Iron City and the popularity of Andrew Mel- 
lon and the growing fame of Clay Frick brought invita- 
tions to many functions, of which the very first of impor- 
tance proved to be a landmark in personal history. This 

72 


Interlude 


was a reception attended by all of the elite and among the 
first to arrive, somewhat conscious but quite undismayed 
in their finest raiment, were the two friends who lost no 
time, after making their obeisances after the manner pre- 
scribed by the great Lord Chesterfield himself, in ensconc- 
ing themselves in an embrasure from which they could 
scan the brilliant assemblage. Presently the observant 
younger became conscious that his companion’s penetrat- 
ing eyes were fixed upon a most charming young woman, 
barely out of her teens, in the center of an animated group 
and, waiting patiently, he soon heard a whisper: 

“There is the handsomest girl in the room. Do you 
know who she 1s?’ 

Hedid. She was Miss Adelaide Howard Childs. 

“Daughter of Asa P.2’’ 

She was,—the youngest. 

‘‘T want you to introduce me.”’ 

Andrew demurred; his acquaintanceship was slight; 
besides, an older person, better known, would be more 
impressive; he would try to find such a one and succeeded, 
with the result that in a few moments Clay, belying 
his reputation for reticence, found himself in an eager 
conversation which ended with a request for permis- 
sion, which was graciously granted, to call on the fol- 
lowing Sunday afternoon. The proverbial ‘‘first sight’’ had 
sufficed. 

It was not quite clear that the permittance comprised 
another but, yielding finally to his friend’s insistence 
and his own pardonable curiosity, Andrew consented to 
‘‘stand by’’ and, at the appointed hour, the two young 

73 


Frick the Man 


men, crossing the lawn of the Childs residence, perceived 
Miss Adelaide conversing placidly with her elder sister, 
with whom presently the youthful banker found him- 
self chatting while the two most concerned strolled 
about the place. When the hour struck for departure Clay 
Frick realized that the delicate task confronting him 
was more difficult than any he had ever essayed, but 
this very fact enhanced his determination, and after three 
long months of patient and persistent wooing, he was 
rewarded by acceptance of an engagement ring, and three 
months later, on December 15th, 1881, a very pretty wed- 
ding took place. It was universally recognized as a highly 
suitable match of the most successful industrialist of his 
yeats in the community with the beautiful and accom- 
plished daughter of a distinguished New England family, 
and all relatives on both sides were pleased. 

Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston 
wete duly visited in leisurely fashion,—and finally New 
York, where the happy couple occupied an elegant suite 
in the famous Fifth Avenue Hotel, and were entertained 
at midday dinner at the exclusive Windsor Hotel by Mr. 
Andrew Carnegie and his revered mother, each of whom 
they met for the first time. It was a noteworthy occasion. 
The two gentlemen, one voluble and hilarious, the other 
reticent and courteous, eyed each other thoughtfully dur- 
ing the repast, at the end of which the host sprang a sur- 
prise upon the ladies by adding to an exuberant toast the 
announcement that Mr. Frick and himself had entered 
into partnership. | 

A moment of silence ensued and then the old Scots- 

74 


Interlude 


woman, recovering from her amazement, remarked 
drily: 

“Surely, Andrew, that will be a fine thing for Mr. 
Frick, but what will be the gain to us?”’ 

Gaily her son reassured her while the guests quietly 
prepared for departure,—and thus casually and oddly 
was heralded the opening of a new chapter in their own 
and many other lives. 


75 


VI 
Enter the Carnegies 


HILE Henry Clay Frick was lifting his 

coke company to a pre-eminent position, 

Thomas Morrison Carnegie was achiey- 

ing like triumphs in the steel industry. 

Although his elder brother Andrew, his senior by eight 
years, still retained stock control of the Carnegie con- 
cerns, his directive interest became incidental to other 
activities when he moved from Pittsburgh to New York 
in 1867 and, opening an office downtown, engaged in con- 
struction work and the marketing of bonds, chiefly for 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Thomas conducted the 
iron manufacturing throughout the critical panic period. 
But for the overshadowing effects of the elder’s extra- 
ordinary fameand his own untimely decease, the younger 
would surely have shared the credit for placing the name 
Carnegie at the head of steel manufacture; indeed, but 
for his energy, resourcefulness, skill, tact, and popular- 
ity, there can be no doubt that the value of the Carnegie 
properties would have suffered severely from the finan- 
cial stress of the time. In any case, with the aid of his 
sagacious partner, Henry Phipps, Jr., who had been his 
playmateasa schoolboy, henot only weathered thestorm 
but, when only twenty-seven years old, disregarded the 
opposition of his brother and on his own account joined 

76 


Enter the Carnegies 


with his father-in-law, William Coleman, in a specula- 
tive undertaking, out of which in 1874 sprang into being 
the big Edgar Thomson works, which soon surpassed 
those of the Carnegies in valuation and earning capacity 
and, by shrewd manipulation, were incorporated in 1881 
in the new firm of Carnegie Brothers & Co., Limited, 
with $5,000,000 capital, of which, it transpired, when 
the deal had been consummated, Andrew Carnegie per- 
sonally owned a clear majority. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Thomas Carnegie and Mr. Frick, as 
buyer and seller respectively of coke, had formed an ac- 
quaintanceship affording mutual commercial advantage 
and personal gratification. The two had attained success 
along similar lines while still in the early thirties and 
each admired, respected and trusted the other. Although 
Mr. Carnegie was the older by four years, in experience 
their ages were approximately the same and they had 
many attributes, as well as aspirations, in common. It 
can scarcely be doubted that, in his remarkable history 
of the steel company, James Howard Bridge reflected the 
mature judgment of Mr. Frick in the following striking 
tribute to one who, for reasons already noted, was de- 
prived of just recognition: 


Mr. T. M. Carnegie’s abilities were too numerous and complex 
to be summed up in a sentence. He was a man of sterling integrity; 
and it was a common saying in Pittsburgh that his word was better 
than some men’s bond. He had remarkable judgment; and his opin- 
ion on commercial questions was valued above that of much older 
and more experienced men. Quick and keen in his perceptions, 
cautious but progressive in his ideas, faithful to his engagements, 
and just in all his dealings, he gave to his company that which 
corporations are habitually lacking, a conscience. His death in 


77 


Frick the Man 


1886, at the early age of forty-three, was a loss not only to his as- 
sociates, but to the whole business world in Pittsburgh. To this 
day all who knew him, great and small, rich and poor, workman 
and master, revere his memory. 


That young Carnegie’s estimate of the younger Frick 
would have corresponded to this appraisal of himself 
there can be no doubt. It was but natural, therefore, that 
the two, as a consequence of harmonious cooperation in 
their business dealings, should have conceived the idea 
of a closer relationship. The amalgamation of the steel 
companies, resulting instantly in Carnegie Brothers & 
Co. becoming by far the largest purchaser of fuel simulta- 
neously with the increasing need of additional capital for 
further expansion of coke-producing facilities, brought 
this project to a head and the terms of the “‘partnership”’ 
announced by Mr. Andrew Carnegie at the luncheon in 
the Windsor Hotel were finally agreed upon while Mr. 
Frick was on his wedding journey. 

The “‘H. C. Frick Coke Company’’ was formed to take 
over the firm’s assests and liabilities and to provide fresh 
capital through the sale of stock, of which $2,000,000 
was issued in 40,000 shares of $50 par value to original 
holders, as recorded on May 5th, 1882, as follows: 


Andrew Carnegie 1,000 shares 
Thomas M. Carnegie 500 
Henry Phipps, Jr. 500 
H. C. Frick 680 
E. M. Ferguson 660 
Walton Ferguson 660 
Carnegie Bros. & Co., Ltd. 2,500 
H. C. Frick & Co. 33,500 


40,000 shares 


78 


Enter the Carnegies 


After the 33,500 shares allotted to the old firm had 
been divided in thirds between the two Fergusons and 
Mr. Frick, the actual ownership of shares stood: Fergu- 
sons, 23,654; Frick, 11,846; Carnegie group, 4,500. Thus 
Mr. Frick had reduced his percentage of interest in the 
property from 331% to29!4 per cent, but this he was will- 
ing to do in consideration of the $325,000 cash provided, 
assumption of the old firm’s indebtedness by the stronger 
corporation, greatly enhanced credit for purposes of expan- 
sion, and association with his largest customer, which 
could not fail to assure a market and stabilize the business. 

The wisdom of his course was demonstrated promptly. 
In the first fourteen months of operation, ending on Feb- 
ruary 28th, 1883, no less than 946,065 tons of coke were 
sold, the net profits exceeded $400,000, the equivalent 
of 20 per cent on the entire capital, liens assumed amount- 
ing to $214,000 were paid and $44,000 was invested in 
new properties. The month of March showed a further 
reduction of $44,000 liens and $20,000 applied to new 
purchases, leaving only $54,000 of indebtedness to be 
met during the succeeding ten months. In these circum- 
stances Mr. Frick urged enlistment of additional capital 
to provide immediate expansion, and Thomas Carnegie, 
on the ground, approved, but Andrew, in New York, 
demurred. Whereupon Mr. Frick, in his first letter to the 
senior written by his own hand, set forth the situation 
succinctly and frankly in these words: 


' Aug. 13th 1883. 
My dear Mr. Carnegie: 
By the end of this season there will be 10,100 ovens in the Con- 


nellsville region proper, of which as we now stand, we shall have 


79 


Frick the Man 


but one-tenth, so that to keep our position we must do something 
towards securing new properties. Our trade is large and steadily 
growing. We do not have coke for our orders, neither can it be 
bought at present and handled at a profit—I do not think we will 
ever see the time when coke properties can be bought cheaper. 
There is no industry today wherein the demand so nearly equals 
the supply and the demand in new channels is increasing rapidly. 

The C. G. C. Co. & Hutchinson properties are the best outside of 
what we have. They were not built to sell; are good in every re- 
spect—good coal—good improvements and, what is of no small 
importance, well located. 

Together their producing capacity is equal to ours—not quite so 
many ovens, but larger, and owned and operated in common with 
ours about as cheaply operated.—So in fine, together equal to ours 
in production and with 1400 acres of more coal for $500,000 less 
than ours is capitalized at. Fourteen hundred acres of such coal 
cannot be bought for less than $250 per acre, or $350. In that view, 
you have a plant with as large producing capacity as ours costing 
$850,000 less money. 

Taking it for granted that it is desirable to acquire these proper- 
ties at the prices at which we have them optional, is it not wise to 
have a good strong party join us in increasing our capital to such 
an extent as will leave us comparatively free of debt? If we increase 
to $3,000,000, that will give us money sufficient to pay for C. G. C. 
Co. entire and about all we need pay on Hutchinson for five years. 

Our office expense will be about the same in conducting the busi- 
ness as it now is, which is no inconsiderable item, and I do not see 
why we should not handle as large a proportion of outside coke. 

I am free to say, I do not like the tone of your letter. Outside of 
my desire to follow and accept your views as the largest stock- 
holder in our Company—lI have great admiration for your acknowl- 
edged abilities and your general good judgment, and would much 
prefer to defer to your views—in the matter of the values of the prop- 
erties in question and the propriety of increasing our stock I shall 
have to differ with you and I think the future will bear me out. 

Everything that has been done so far, has been with the consent 
of your brother, and with his approval. 


Yours very truly, 
H. C, Frick. 


80 


Enter the Carnegies 


Whatever annoyance Mr. Carnegie may have felt at 
the discovery that his new partner held tenaciously to 
his convictions seems to have been offset by the tribute 
to his own sagacity, and he finally assented to the in- 
crease in stock. But Mr. Frick’s appetite for expansion 
and consolidation was insatiable and before the year 
ended he proposed that the company purchase the hold- 
ings of himself and associates in properties which had 
not been included in the original transaction. 

“What I think you should do,” he wrote on November 
13th, “is to agree that the Frick Coke Company purchase 
our interests in those properties for $600,000,—thus ena- 
bling us to pay up that million of Frick & Co. increase— 
and buy from us $500,000 of Frick Coke Co. stock, giv- 
ing us your paper at three, four and five years for the same. 
You will then be the owner of one-half of Frick Coke Co. 
which will have over eight thousand acres of coal and 
about three thousand ovens. It does seem to me that we 
should have all of our coke interests consolidated.” 

This was a shrewd appeal to Mr. Carnegie’s avidity 
for actual stock control of every company in which he 
was interested. It seems strange, at first glance, that Mr. 
Frick should have made it, but Mr. Carnegie had already 
become the largest stockholder through purchase of 
shares from the Fergusons and could readily obtain more 
at a price whenever he should see fit to do so. To this Mr. 
Frick had no objection. Obviously the Carnegies could 
be more helpful as partners than outsiders if their good 
faith could be safely assumed and, upon this point, his 
transactions with the younger brother were convincing. 

SI 


Frick the Man 


The general advantage bound to accruefrom such enor- 
mous expansion as he had now begun to visualize would 
benefit his unchanged percentage of interest proportion- 
ately in any case. What he most desired at the moment 
was immediate enlargement and consolidation of all his 
holdings in order to enable him to apply that complete 
concentration of energies which he had come to regard 
as the key of great success. 

Mr. Carnegie, for his part, could imagine nothing 
more favorable to his concerns than the acquisition of 
two vital essentials—a virtual no and an ex- 
i man. 

‘““We found,’’ he wrote many years sees with the 
slight inaccuracies peculiar toage and impaired memory, 
‘that we could not get on without a supply of the fuel 
essential to the smelting of pig iron; and a very thorough 
investigation of the question led us to the conclusion 
that the Frick Coke Company had not only the best coal 
and coke property, but that it had in Mr. Frick himself 
a man with a positive genius for its management. He 
had proved his ability by starting as a poor railway clerk 
(2) and succeeding. In 1882 (@) we purchased one half of 
the stock of this company, and by subsequent purchases 
from other holders we became owners of the great bulk 
of the shares.”’ 

So the arrangement was madealong thelines suggested 
and the company, under Mr. Frick’s unquestioned con- 
trol, both prospered and grew until 1887, when the num- 
ber of ovens had increased five-fold from 1,000 to 5,000 
and the output had leaped to six thousand tons per day. 

82 


AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN 


Enter the Carnegies 


Then came the trouble, not merely between owners and 
workers, but among both proprietors and wage-earners 
separately, which afforded the preliminary test of Henry 
Clay Frick's quality as a fighting champion of property 
rights. 

Early in 1887 the coke operators of the entire Connells- 
ville district proposed for the ensuing year a wage scale 
which the miners refused to accept and by agreement the 
whole matter was referred by the labor unions and the 
Operators, acting in unison, to a Board of Arbitration 
which pronounced the workmen’s demands excessive 
and upheld the owners. The labor unions, duly author- 
ized, accepted the decision, but the local lodges refused 
to abide by the decision and called a strike which the 
officers of the Knights of Labor promptly proclaimed 
illegal. Nevertheless the men went out and the struggle 
began, with the operators standing their ground firmly 
and unanimously behind a small committee of which 
Mr. Frick was the leading spirit, and with the miners 
and their sympathizers brutally assaulting non-union 
men who wanted to work, destroying machinery and 
blowing up the works with dynamite. 

Suddenly, to the dismay of the owners and the amaze- 
ment of Mr. Frick, at the very moment when the men 
were in convention and showing signs of yielding, the 
directors of the Frick Company ordered complete sur- 
render to the strikers and resumption of operation upon 
the terms demanded. Unfortunately for the management, 
Thomas Carnegie, whose sympathy at least would have 
been with his friend, had died in 1886, and Mr. Frick 

83 


Frick the Man 


and the two Fergusons, constituting a small minority 
of the Board, were helpless. 

The chief factors in control of the Board were Mr. Henry 
Phipps, Jr., and Mr. John Walker, chairmen of the two 
Carnegie companies. Whether, as commonly believed, they 
acted in pursuance of a peremptory order cabled by Mr. 
Carnegie, who was in Scotland at the time on his honey- 
moon, is immaterial. That the latter acquiesced in revers- 
ing the policy of Mr. Frick is certain, but the fact that 
both Mr. Phipps and Mr. Walker, who were men unaccus- 
tomed to yield their own convictions, personally favored 
the action taken cannot be ignored. 

Their reasons were plain. Prolongation of the strike 
would be disastrous to the two steel companies, which 
had already banked seven blast furnaces and were men- 
aced with complete stoppage of iron production from 
lack of fuel. They naturally held their obligation to their 
own companies of primary consideration and as out- 
weighing their responsibility, as directors, to the coke 
company. Technically, they were within their rights in 
overriding their President and, morally, they did not 
feel bound by his engagements with other operators. 

That Mr. Frick felt deeply humiliated by such repudi- 
ation and regretted for the moment that he had ever 
joined with or trusted the Carnegies, may safely be as- 
sumed. Even more distressing than the personal mortifi- 
cation, such as he had never before experienced, was his 
apprehension that surrender would serve only to invite 
vastly greater labor difficulties in the near future; but, 
having failed to convince his partners of the correctness 

84 


Enter the Carnegies 


of his judgment, on May 13th he warned them, and 
through them Mr. Carnegie, of his personal determina- 
tion, in a letter written by his own hand to the follow- 
ing effect: May 13th, 1887. 
Messrs. Henry Phipps, Jr., John Walker, and others. 

Gentlemen: 

I cannot honorably carry out your policy in regard to this com- 
pany, and beg to tender my resignation as President. 

Having temporized with our employés and made concession after 
concession to satisfy them and largely in your interest, and against 
the interest and judgment of all other coke producers, and finally 
prevailing on them to agree to arbitration and decision having been 
rendered in our favor, I think that, cost what it may, we should 
abide by it, and not start our works until our employés resume 
work at the old wages, but inasmuch as you have large interests 
depending on our works being operated I do not feel like standing 
in the way of you managing the property as your judgment and 


interests dictate. 
Very respectfully, 


H. C. Frick. 

Both parties to the controversy then rested upon their 
oars, each earnestly hoping that the other would capit- 
ulate, until June 7th when, as in honor bound, after hav- 
ing outlined the situation to the other owners, to enable 
them to safeguard their interests as they might deem 
best, and having notified them of his own intention, Mr. 
Frick called a meeting of the Board and resigned peremp- 
torily and simultaneously submitted the following com- 
munication addressed to Messrs. Phipps and Walker: 


Messrs. Henry Phipps, Jr., John Walker, et al. June 7th, 1887. 
Gentlemen: 

As you hold a majority of the stock and are entitled to control in 
the Frick Coke Company, and in view of what has passed between 
us on the subject, I feel compelled to vacate my position as its Presi- 
dent. I therefore enclose, herewith, my resignation. 


85 


Frick the Man 


But I accompany it with this my serious protest against the 
course you propose to take regarding the pending strike. lam satis- 
fied that it must occasion heavy loss to the Coke Company. Besides 
the loss occasioned by granting the men’s present unreasonable de- 
mands, it will only lead to still more unreasonable demands in the 
near future. The loss to the Coke Company may be far more than 
made up, so far as you are concerned, by gains in your steel inter- 
ests, but I object to so manifest a prostitution of the CokeCompany’s 
interests in order to promoteyour steel interests. 

Whilst a majority of the stock entitles you to control, I deny 
that it confers the right to manage so as to benefit your interests in 
other concerns at the loss and injury of the Coke Company in 


which I am interested. 
Very respectfully yours 


ek C. Frick. 


‘Matters,’ he wrote to Mr. Ferguson, “came to a 
crisis today. Things have been pointing that way for 
several days. I felt quite sure that the men, at their con- 
vention on Monday, would decide to resume work at 
the old wages, but they did not do so. The conventions, 
however, at this writing, are still in session and they 
may do so yet. The Carnegies, however, got restless and 
made up their minds that they would do anything to get 
the works started, so I insisted that they accept my resig- 
nation at once. This they did this afternoon, and elected 
Mr. Phipps as President in my place. I handed in the res- 
ignations of yourself and brother, which were accepted, 
and Mr. John Walker was elected to fill one of the vacan- 
cies; the other, they said would be filled in a day or two. 

‘Everything passed off pleasantly and I told the Car- 
negie crowd that I would do everything I could to clean 
the business up and put it in proper shape. I made them 


the enclosed proposition.”’ 
86 


Enter the Carnegies 


(ENCLOSURE) 


Messrs. Carnegie Brothers & Co., Limited, gone fee een - 


Gentlemen: 

Regarding my interest in the Frick Coke Company and its kin- 
dred Companies, I will sell you the same at the same valuation we 
paid the Messrs. Ferguson, with interest from same date, as paid 
to them, payable as follows: Fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) 
cash, and fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) every six (6) months 
until paid, with interest payable semi-annually, and to be secured 
by the stocks hereby agreed to be sold. Or I will take such a pro- 
portion of the Frick Coke Company property as we may agree upon, 
with its share of the debt; for instance, the Standard Mines prop- 
erty, and its interest in the United Coal & Coke Company, and the 
Mount Pleasant Water Company. 

If we cannot agree on valuations, I will leave it to three disinter- 
ested persons chosen in the usual way; and if that property is allot- 
ted to me I should like an assignment to me of the North Chicago 
Rolling Mill Company contract. 

The propositions are open for your acceptance until June 15th 
next, and, if either is accepted, to be fully closed by July 1st, next. 

Very respectfully yours, 
H. C. Frick. 


Thus, with characteristic thoroughness and fairness, 
though surely not without a heartache, Henry Clay 
Frick did all within his power to make complete his 
severance from the splendid property, to the building of 
which he had given seventeen of his best creative years. 
The differences of opinion which resulted in a change of 
management fortunately produced no serious animosi- 
ties. Dignity and restraint characterized the conduct of 
both parties throughout the controversy and no running 
sores were left to be healed. 

But Mr. Frick’s offer to sell his interest upon obviously 
low and easy terms was not accepted. Probably Mr. Car- 

87 


Frick the Man 


negie had not expected the young man to burn all of his 
bridges; possibly he did not fancy the best equipped man 
in the business as a potential rival of the company which 
he had created; in any event, the dullest, not to mention 
one of the shrewdest, of minds could hardly have failed 
to perceive the merits of a Fabian policy. And when pres- 
ently the other operators had won their battle, despite 
the Carnegie defection, and the Carnegiecompanies found 
themselves burdened with 1214 per cent higher wages 
than their competitors, thus wholly confirming Mr. 
Frick’s anticipation, one can readily understand why Mr. 
Carnegie’s attitude became distinctly propitiatory. 

On July 22nd, Mr. Frick, accompanied by his wife, 
their two young children, and Mrs. and Miss Childs, 
the mother and sister of Mrs. Frick, sailed for Europe 
and, upon reaching London, found this cordial note 
awaiting him: 


Welcome to Britain’s Isle, August 2, 1887. 


Of course you will all come and spend a woe with us. 

It’s supertb—Come and see what one gets in Scotland these sum- 
mer days. 

Just off this morning, ten in all, for three days coaching tour. 
Blaine the happiest man you ever saw. Let me hear your move- 
ments. Can take you all in any time. 

Yours always 
ANDREW CARNEGIE. 
P.S.—Kind regards to Mrs. Frick and sister in which Louise [Mrs. 
Carnegie] heartily joins. AC. 


Arrangements having been made, however, for im- 
mediate continuance of their journey, acceptance was 


not feasible and the party proceeded forthwith to the 
88 


eee ee ee 


AT THE AGE OF NINETEEN 


Enter the Carnegies 


continent. A second request of like tenor was made in 
September to the following effect: 


September 9th, 1887. 
My dear Mr. Frick: 


H. P. [Mr Phipps] tells me you can spare a few days about roth 
to visitors. 

Come ahead. Shall be so glad to have Mrs. Frick and her sister 
and yourself and any othets of your party. 

We hope you will find Scotland in fine trim but we can’t expect 
July weather in September so don’t expect it to be always dry. 
Wire day and train. 

We sail Fulda 9th Oct. Can’t you come with us? Splendid ship 


and captain. 
Yours always 


A. Cy 
Regards to Mrs.Frick in which Louise joins, also sends same to you. 


Mr. Carnegie seems to have been misinformed by Mr. 
Phipps respecting the movements of the travellers and it 
was forwarded from London reaching Mr. Frick in Ham- 
burg. The inconvenience of changing plans made neces- 
sary another declination for the time, but the visit was 
finally paid before the families returned to America. 

The way having been thus opened, overtures from 
Messrs. Phipps and Walker, authorized by Mr. Carnegie, 
found a ready response and early in January, 1888, Mr. 
Frick was duly re-elected President of the H. C. Frick 
Coke Co., to the great relief and gratification of all con- 
cerned, not excluding the competing operators who now 
felt confident that they would not suffer again from what 
they had regarded as a breach of faith. 

Mr. Carnegie no longer questioned the wisdom of the 
Frick policy of expansion on a large scale and made the 
completeness of his conversion plain on February 18th, 

89 


Frick the Man 


1889, when upon receipt of news of a fresh acquisition 
he cabled from Christiania: | 


Frick hearty congratulations splendid must get options other 
properties promptly or too late, don't be afraid, want all. 


An active correspondence quickly developed between 
the two men, Mr. Frick constantly making reports and 
outlining fresh projects, often by his own hand, and Mr. 
Carnegie responding with words of encouragement usu- 
ally scribbled in pencil upon scraps of paper and the backs 
of envelopes. Nearly every communication closed with 
jottings like these: 


You can’t justly estimate what a tremendously big man you are. 

Perhaps some day you will realize that you are a much bigger 
man than Prest of P.R.R. 

Take supreme care of that head of yours. It is wanted again. Ex- 
pressing my thankfulness that I have found Taz Man, J am always 
Yours, A.C. ' | 

‘‘Fis a marvel let’s get all Fs.”’ 

Mr. Frick’s prediction that the Carnegie settlement 
of the strike in 1887, made against his protest, would 
serve only to fetch fresh demands, was fulfilled unex- 
pectedly early in August, 1889, when all of the Connells- 
ville men stopped work. The miners not only allowed 
nothing for the 1214 per cent higher wages paid by the 
Frick Company but cleverly made that schedule the basis 
for further advances along the line gauged to put all 
workmen on the same plane. Frankly confessing that 
the strike came as a complete surprise and “‘led one to 
lose almost all faith’’ in the company’s unappreciative 
employés, Mr. Frick, in his report to Mr. Carnegie, then 
abroad, could not resist the impulse to add significantly: 

9° 


Enter the Carnegies 


The men seemed to have made up their minds not to return to 
work under any circumstances nor at any wages until all of the 
men in the region returned to work at the same wages. They had 
before them the experience of the Frick Coke Company men get- 
ting an advance in 1887, the men of other operators having been 
kept out and having had to return at the old wages, thus creating 
a demoralization in their ranks and resulting in almost every oper- 
ator paying different wages. 


But the union had chosen shrewdly a time when stop- 
page of all furnaces for even so much asa fortnight would 
be disastrous; so there was nothing for it but to consent 
promptly to a 12 per cent increase continuing to February 
1st, 1890, when a new general scale was to be agreed upon 
for a year. 

Mr. Frick was not caught napping a second time, as 
the miners quickly discovered upon repeating their tac- 
tics pending a renewal of this contract. The coke bins 
were well filled and the steel business was so dull that 
the Carnegie companies had only to raise prices slightly 
to reduce orders to suit their convenience. The Frick 
Company was fully prepared for a siege and, accepting 
the issue forced upon it, calmly proceeded to fetch non- 
union workers into service. The enraged strikers and 
their sympathizers adopted a policy of terrorism and 
“the whole region was given over to rioting, arson and 
murder,’’—but to no avail. 

There was no interference with the President this time 
and no effective pressure could be brought to bear upon 
him. Gradually, under the compelling force of public 
opinion, the County authorities intervened sternly on 
behalf of law and order, shooting to kill and actually 

gi 


We 


atdinently satisfaceory to HE miner er 


ae 


as iy : ¥ Ries, 


7 be ree ¥ ee Fi ‘ Te + 
ede al fas Meee AER ho Ril tee) a te} z ees 


Vil 


“The Man” in Steel 


ONVINCED by the happenings in 1887 and 

1888 of the ‘‘genius for management”’ of Mr. 

Frick, Mr. Carnegie concluded that he was 

“THE Man’’ whom he had been seeking in 

vain to effect a sadly needed reorganization of the steel 

forces, and offered him a partnership, with the result that 

in January, 1889, the ‘‘coke king’’ acquired, with money 

loaned to him by Mr. Carnegie personally, a two per 

cent interest in Carnegie Brothers & Co., and became 

Chairman of the firm. This interest was increased by the 

same process at various times during the next three years, 

at the expiration of which it amounted to 11 per cent, 

equalling the holdings of Mr. Phipps and second only 
to Mr. Carnegie’s majority of 552% per cent. 

The new Chairman made haste slowly but surely. He 
had never anticipated engaging in steel manufacture and 
was ignorant of its details. What and practically all he 
did realize, as a consequence of casual observation, was 
that the business had outgrown the management to such 
an extent that conditions had become chaotic. Obviously 
the pressing necessity was, first, consolidation of the 
many segregated units into an effective, harmonious 
whole and, secondly, immense enlargement along safe 
lines upon a sound basis. 

93 


Frick the Man 


No other kind of work could have appealed so strongly 
to his imaginative ambition. But the task was so great 
and the ramifications so many that painstaking acquire- 
ment of accurate knowledge of all phases was absolutely 
essential and, profiting from his invaluable experience, 
he began an intensive study of the entire problem as a 
requisite preliminary to any single move toward de- 
velopment. 

The financial condition of the properties revealed by 
the balance sheet was not encouraging. An unsuspected 
slump in net profits from $2,900,000 in 1886 and $3,441,- 
000 in 1887 to $1,900,000 in 1888 was most disquieting 
to the chief partners. Foreseeing this outcome, Mr. Phipps 
had quietly sold nearly one-half of his holdings during 
the year and Mr. Carnegie would probably have done 
likewise but for the necessity of retaining an actual ma- 
jority for controlling and trading purposes. Both felt 
that the extreme limit of earning capacity might have 
been reached in 1887 and that the appalling break in 1888 
only presaged a steady and irresistible shrinkage. All de- 
pended upon two factors,—higher prices from increased 
demand and lower costs from efficient management. 

Fortunately these essentials came into play simultane- 
ously and before the middle of the year 1889 had been 
reached profits were showing a marked advance. The 
time seemed propitious for sale of the properties and Mr. 
Carnegie, convinced that the rally was only temporary, 
determined to take advantage of it. Mr. Phipps acqui- 
esced somewhat reluctantly and the elder partner sailed 
for England on a selling mission but for some reason, 

94 


“The Man” in Steel 


possibly because his price seemed too high or because 
investors recalled that fifteen years before he had sold to 
them $6,000,000 of railroad bonds which subsequently 
proved to be worthless, or both, bankers manifested no 
interest and the project failed, greatly to his own dis- 
appointment and to the relief of Mr. Phipps, who wrote 
to him from Dresden on November rst, 1889: 


With Mr. Frick at the head, I have no fear as to receiving a good 
- return upon our capital. Being interested in manufacturing keeps 
us within touch of the world and its affairs instead of being on the 
shelf. Of course I am anxious that you should not be worried by 
the business—only pleasantly interested. 


If a sale had been made for a sum reasonably based 
upon earnings and prospects, Mr. Carnegie could hardly 
have obtained for his share more than one-tenth of the 
amount which he received twelve years later from the 
Morgan syndicate. 

Meanwhile the opening of new and delicate relations 
between Chief Stockholder and Chairman was not aus- 
picious. Mr. Carnegie early in February evinced a desire 
to revive an old dispute over a matter of no great im- 
portance with the Pennsylvania Railroad, despite his 
Own certainty that ‘‘the narrow legal minds that led it 
into a mess at first will no doubt assure Mr. Roberts that 
there is no legal liability,’’"—an anticipated opinion in 
which he did not concur. 

But Mr. Frick demurred at asking the firm’s lawyers 
to interpose if certain conditions should arise in Mr. 


95 


Frick the Man 


Carnegie’s absence, and won from him an admission that 
“our interests lie in future with the P.R.R.”’ 

But the concession, even though addressed to “‘My 
Dear Pard,’’ was made with obvious reluctance and Mr. 
Carnegie became distinctly querulous as soon as he 
reached Europe in May. 

‘I very much fear,’’ he wrote on June 1st from Paris, 
“that your coke matter will be allowed to fall through. 
It will be a sad ending to all, this fight. I believe you 
will fail and am disposed to be like the Frenchman this 
morning: ‘Just filled with one grand disgust’ at the whole 
affair.’’ And then, somewhat incongruously: 


Busy visiting the various republics (Southern) but shall return 
to London by 13th to give that dinner to Mr. & Mrs. Lincoln 
Gladstone, etc.—All well. Take care of yourself—dont work too 
hard and dont grieve as I do over that $50,000 per annum—gone on 
ore rate—I just hate compromises after we have won a victory. They 
are so gratuitously needless. Now lets see if we can do the coke 
tate, straight cut, clear and once for all, 40¢ Pgh 30 E. T. 


‘‘Costs,’’ he wrote from Christiania, ‘‘are the most 
alarming change I have known in our history. Jones 
must have made some radical change for sake of product. 
Now one or two thousand tons more per month is noth- 
ing if we are to be fleeced so in cost. Am awfully sorry 
you failed in your coke matter—wish now I had persisted 
and fired another gun at the monopoly,’’—etc. 

This letter arrived while the Chairman was wrestling 
with the coke strike and evoked the following response, 
written on the morning after the settlement at midnight 
of August 8th: 

96 


“The Man” in Steel 


August 9th, 1889. 
My dear Mr. Carnegie: 

I have read with interest yours from Christiania. 

It is very much pleasanter to agree than differ with you and in 
most things I would and will always defer to your judgment be- 
cause there is no one whose attitude I hold in as high esteem, but 
I always hold to the opinion that your attack on P. R. R. was 
wrong and I should deprecate its renewal—You cannot expect me 
to succeed in carrying everything through that is wished for or 
undertaken. 

I could not and would not remain the official head of any con- 
cern that was not well managed. If a concern is to be mismanaged, 
the official head’s policy must have due consideration. 

I cannot stand fault-finding and I must feel that I have the entire 
confidence of the power that put me where I am, in a place I did 
not seek. 

With all that, I know I can manage both C. B. & Co., and Frick 


Coke Co., successfully. 
Sincerely yours 


H. C. Frick. 

Apparently this letter did not reach Mr. Carnegie be- 
fore he sailed for home and was forwarded to Bar Har- 
bor, where he had gone for a visit to James G. Blaine. 
In lieu of a specific reply, on September 2nd he addressed 
a long communication to ‘‘My Dear Mr. Frick and Boys 
in general,’’in the course of which he admonished “Our 
Chairman’”’ to “‘remember that no buyer comes to him 
except because he can do better with him than with oth- 
ers’’ and closed with these words: 


I will give you all my views freely. It is evident a new leaf must 
be turned over in C. P. & Co., perhaps you will find me at fault 
about the remedy and can devise a better policy. So be it. It rests 
with you—only don’t give me any more surprises. Let us all know 
month after month, promptly, where we are going. I can stand 


losses with you but object to be deluded. 
Yours A.C. 


97 


Frick the Man 


But on the following day he wrote to ‘“My Dear Mr. 
Frick”’ saying: 

Let me express the relief I feel in knowing that the important 
departments of our extended business are in the hands of a com- 
petent manager. Phipps and I exchanged congratulations upon 
this point. Now I only want to know how your hands can be 
strengthened. I am most anxious to carry out the work I told you 
about but you can well understand that neither Phipps nor I feel 
sure that C. P. & Co. is fairly off our hands. 

Having succinctly defined his own attitude, Mr. Frick 
continued about his business, duly reported progress, 
was duly congratulated and closed the year’s correspond- 
ence with an invitation to Mr. Carnegie to pay him a 
visit and inspect the recent acquisitions in the coke re- 
gion constituting “‘a great property.’ 

The first year of the new manager's direction of the 
chief Carnegie concern showed for the combined proper- 
ties an increase in steel ingots produced from 332,111 to 
536,838 gross tons and a net profit of $3,540,000, as 
against $1,991,555 for 1888. | 

This highly gratifying result served to modify the few 
irritations that had begun somewhat ominously to tinc- 
ture the correspondence of two naturally, controlling 
spirits. Letters passed with increasing frequency to and 
from ‘‘My dear Mr. Carnegie’’ and ‘‘My dear Pard,”’ to 
distinct mutual advantage; fault-finding ceased entirely, 
giving way to helpful and welcome suggestions, which 
might or might not be heeded without inciting resent- 
ment; opinions were exchanged with complete frankness 
from what seemed to be perfect understanding and a true 
cooperative spirit; and the way was cleared for full exer- 


98 


AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE 


“The Man” in Steel 


cise of the talents and energy of THz Man, without let or 
hindrance, for more than two years. 

Great progress was made. The various segregated 
plants, until then operated by dissociated and independ- 
ent managements, jealous of and actually competing with 
one another, were assembled in masterly fashion; con- 
necting railways were built; possession of yards which 
had been secured by the railroad companies was regained ; 
waste was reduced to a minimum; and young, active and 
ambitious men headed by Schwab and Morrison were 
installed in authority and, while encouraged in every 
conceivable way, were held to strict accounting. 

None was expected to work harder or longer than the 
Chairman himself, who rose methodically at 6 a.m., 
walked two miles to his office to keep fit, was at his desk 
invariably at eight o'clock ready for business, conferred 
at luncheon with one or more of his lieutenants, re- 
turned home when he had finished the day’s work, 
joked with his seven-year-old son, played with his two 
little daughters, dined almost always alone with his wife 
quietly and quickly, studied business problems till early 
bed-time, and slept soundly till the whistle blew for 
the beginning of another identical day. 

There can be little doubt that 1890 was the happiest 
year in the life of Henry Clay Frick. He revelled in doing 
and gloried in achieving big things. No project conceived 
by his own growing imagination or suggested by an- 
other’s mind fazed him for a moment, provided only 
that it tended to concentration of effort and expansion 
of business. And he not only kept close hold of all the 

99 


Frick the Man 


reins of operation, but he did practicallyall of the financ- 
ing of all the companies for whose direction he was re- 
sponsible. 

The most striking instance of his application of inge- 
nuity and patience was afforded by his acquisition of the 
Carnegie group’s only rival. The Duquesne Steel Com- 
pany was incorporated in 1886 by William G. and D. E. 
Park, and E. L. Clark, competent and successful manu- 
facturers, and its plant, three years in building, was the 
best equipped in the country, with new and improved 
machinery adapted to superior methods which could not 
fail to produce first-quality rails at a far lower cost than 
could be attained by Carnegie machinery. 

Mr. Frick was awake to the menace and made a tenta- 
tive offer of $600,000 for the works in 1889 before they 
had been put into full operation, but the price was not 
satisfactory and he bided his time. At the end of a year 
Mr. Park, harassed by strikes and handicapped by refusal 
of his partners to furnish additional capital to meet the 
cost of expensive construction, evinced a desire to sell 
and Mr. Frick promptly raised his offer to $1,000,000 in 
bonds of Carnegie Brothers & Co., which had then be- 
come, as a consequence of the first year’s showing under 
his management, gilt-edged. He probably could have ob- 
tained the property for less money, as the company was 
on the verge of bankruptcy, but, having thoughtfully 
procured a market for the next year’s product in the event 
of being able to supply it, he perceived no possibility of 
loss or occasion for haggling, and his offer was accepted. 

On October 30th, 1890, his thoroughly trained organi- 


100 


“The Man” in Steel 


zation took over the splendid plant, with young Thomas 
Morrison, a relative of Mr. Carnegie, already cocked 
and primed to take full charge and with arrangements 
made in advance for connecting up by rail with the Car- 
negie plants in record time. Results were amazing. The 
net profits for the first year exceeded the purchase price 
of $1,000,000; when the bonds fell due, the plant had 
paid for itself six times over; and surplus earnings were 
“ploughed back’’ into the property to so vast an extent 
that ten years later the plant had attained the enormous 
Capacity per year of 750,000 tons of pig-iron and 600,- 
ooo tons of raw steel, with adequate facilities within its 
own area for turning the entire huge quantity of raw 
material into finished products. 

Few, if any, achievements surpassing this in magni- 
tude and celerity combined are recorded in industrial 
history. 

But further consolidation was required to perfect the 
organization. [he firm of Carnegie, Phipps & Co., which 
had been formed in 1886 to take over the plant at Home- 
stead, was still a separate concern. Its ownership was 
identical with that of Carnegie Brothers & Co., and Mr. 
Frick was elected a manager in 1889 but took no part in 
administration. There was no antagonism between the 
two companies but the fact was evident that actual con- 
solidation was highly desirable for economy’s sake. The 
real obstacle was financial. Working capital had been ob- 
tained by discounting notes given by one company to 
another, as buyer and seller respectively, thus providing 
the ‘‘two-name paper’’ required by banks and inciden- 

IOI 


Frick the Man 


tally funds for whichever concern stood in need. In these 
circumstances, it seemed hazardous to extinguish Car- 
negie, Phipps & Co., but happily the H. C. Frick Coke 
Company’s credit was responding so strongly to steadily 
increasing earnings that Mr. Frick felt justified in writ- 
ing to Mr. Carnegie: 
(OWN HAND) 

My dear Mr. Carnegie: February roth., 1890. 

Referring to the condition of our finances, and looking towards 
consolidating C. B. & C. P. & Co., I find there is outstanding 
$1,185,000.00 of paper made by Carnegie Phipps & Co., to the 
order of Carnegie Bros. & Co., $860,000.00 of paper made by Car- 
negie Bros. & Co., to the order of Frick Coke Co., the proceeds of 
which was paid to Carnegie Bros & Co., $590,000.00 of paper made 
by Carnegie Bros. & Co., to the order of Frick Coke Co., for the 
accommodation of the Frick Coke Co. 

So you see a few months of such earnings as we are now having 
will enable us to get along without the necessity of taking paper 
from C. P. & Co. If anything of the kind is needed, the Frick Coke 
Co. can be used. Had a talk with Abbott who favors making one 


COP TEOY: Yours very truly 


H.C, Frick. 

Upon these confident expectations which were abun- 
dantly realized during the period allotted by Mr. Frick, 
the merger was agreed to by all of the twenty-two part- 
ners, to go into effect on July 1st, 1892, through the sale 
of the physical properties to a new company called The 
Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, capitalized at $25,- 
000,000. It was duly stipulated in the Articles of Asso- 
ciation that the entire amount should be ‘*paid in cash”’ 
by the subscribers, i.e., the partners in proportion to their 
holdings, and so indeed it was,—from the treasuries of 
the absorbed companies and the proceeds of the sale of 

102 


“The Man” in Steel 


the properties at valuations made to match. No new 
money was contributed. The transaction, in effect, was 
a mere increase in capital from the original $5,000,000 
to $25,000,000 through what amounted to a 4oo per cent 
share dividend. 

And it was a modest capitalization at that, for the 
simple reason that the second year of Frick management, 
1890, showed net profits of $5,350,000, an increase of 
$1,810,000 and more than 20 per cent upon the entire 
$2.5 ,000,000. | 

The “‘subscribers,’’ as of July 1st, 1892, were: 


CAPITAL 
NAMB ORIGINAL INCREASE TOTAL 
Andrew Carnegie $2,766,666.67 $11,066,666.66  $13,833,333.33 
Henry Phipps, Jr. 550,000.00 2.,2.00,000.00 2.,750,000.00 
Henry Clay Frick $50,000.00 2,200,000.00 2.,5750,000.00 
George Lauder 200,000.00 800,000.00 1,000,000.00 
William H. Singer 100,000.00 400,000.00 $00,000.00 
Henry M. Curry 100,000.00 400,000.00 500,000.00 
Henry W. Borntraeger 100,000.00 400,000.00 500,000.00 
John G. A. Leishman 100,000.00 400,000.00 500,000.00 
William L. Abbott $0,000.00 2.00,000.00 250,000.00 
Otis H. Childs 50,000.00 200,000.00 250,000.00 
John W. Vandevort 40,000.00 160,000.00 2.00,000.00 
Charles L. Strobel 33,333-33 133,333-34 166,666.67 
Francis T. F. Lovejoy 33,333-33 133,333-34 166,666.67 
Patrick R. Dillon 25,000.00 100,000.00 125 ,000.00 
William W. Blackburn 16,666.67 66,666.66 83,,333-33 
William P. Palmer 16,666.67 66,666.66 83,333.33 
Lawrence C. Phipps 16,666.67 66,666.66 83 333-33 
Alexander R. Peacock 16,666.67 66,666.66 83,333.33 
J. Ogden Hoffman 16,666.67 66,666.66 83,333.33 
John C. Fleming 16,666.67 66,666.66 83,333.33 
James H. Simpson 12,500.00 50,000.00 62,500.00 
Henry B. Bope 53555-55 33,224.25 27;777-78 
F, T. F. Lovejoy, Trustee 183,611.10 734,444.47 918,055.57 


Total 


$5 ,000,000.00 


$20,000.000.00 


$25 ,000,000.00 


Only Messrs. Carnegie, Phipps and Frick were really 
independent shareholders. The others were ‘‘debtor part- 


103 


Frick the Man 


nets,’ owing the Company for the holdings allotted to 
them, which were expected to be and, in fact, were even- 
tually paid for out of earnings and other revenues. 

Mr. Frick’s interest had been increased from his origi- 
nal 2 per cent to 11 per cent, partly through purchase of 
a deceased partner’s share and partly at the instance and 
with the cooperation of Mr. Carnegie, who obviously 
wanted to hold fast to THz Man who was coining money 
for him. 

“T wish we could get H. P. (Mr. Phipps) satisfied,’’ 
he wrote in February, 1890—"‘Never had a difference be- 
fore with him—He has sold and is sorry. I’m quite sure 
he feels that your interest is too small just as I do, but it 
was you who said ‘decide (or ‘divide’) even’, and I did 
so. Should you like to merge or do something to get more 
(?) for really it is to be wonderfully profitable. I don’t 
understand why you owe (me) so little—You must have 
been paying up from outside fortune. Think over all this 
and suggest best plan—any plan that’s good and fair 
will suit me.”’ : 

But a full year elapsed before Mr. Frick, with his an- 
noying experiences of 1889 still fresh in mind, became 
convinced that he could go along with Mr. Carnegie 
and signified his willingness to incur further obligations, 
evoking the following cheery response: 


Sunday, March 29th, 1891. 
My dear Mr. Frick: 


I am delighted to think you can now go in and increase your in- 
terest—You ought to—for theres no business in this world that I 
know of which will make more money or give your talents greater 
scope. 

104. 


“The Man” in Steel 


The ‘‘margin’’ idea is satisfactory—highly approved for I do 
not wish you to be anxious about the future. 

My hope is you will then “‘concentrate’’ upon the business and 
make it the greatest ever seen—even Chicago would rank second— 

I'll fix it all with you next week when I go to Pittsburgh. 

Yours A.C. 

The arrangement was soon made along the lines pro- 
posed, to the satisfaction of all interested in the future 
welfare of the company, and Mr. Frick, as Chairman of 
Carnegie Brothers & Co., assumed full charge of plans 
preliminary to the fateful negotiations with the Labor 
Union spokesmen of nearly four thousand workmen at 
Homestead. Simultaneously, following the formal re- 
tirement of Messrs. Carnegie and Phipps, officers of the 
new Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, scheduled to be- 
gin operation on July 1st, were unanimously agreed upon 
as follows: 


Cuatrman, Henry Clay Frick; Treasurer, Henry M. Curry; 
Secretary, Francis T. F. Lovejoy; Manacers, Henry Clay Frick, 
George Lauder, William H. Singer, Henry M. Curry, John G. A. 
Leishman, Lawrence C. Phipps, Francis T. F. Lovejoy. 


The reorganization was complete and absolute control 
of the greatest steel company, including the largest coke 
company, in the world, employing thirty thousand men, 
was vested for one year in Henry Clay Frick at the prom- 
ising age of forty-one. 


105 


Vill 


Homestead 


HE seeds of the most famous of all strikes, at 

Homestead in 1892, were planted in the wage 

settlement imposed upon Carnegie, Phipps & 

Co. by the Amalgamated Association of Iron 
& Steel Workers in 1889. Prior to that time there had been 
no standards of compensation, and no provision had been 
made for readjustment to conform to the increase in the 
output of individual workmen arising from new methods 
and improved machinery applicable particularly to the 
fabrication of Bessemer and open-hearth steel. As a con- 
sequence, earnings based upon tonnage had not only ad- 
vanced to grossly excessive figures but were distributed 
most inequitably, unskilled laborers in many instances 
getting from five to ten times as much as highly trained 
mechanics. 

To rectify these inequalities, Chairman Abbott pro- 
posed, with the approval of Mr. Carnegie, a general re- 
duction in wages of about 25 per cent and automatic regu- 
lation of future compensation by a scale which should 
follow, from month to month, the prices received by the 
firm for steel sold. This so-called “‘sliding-scale’’ basis 
had already been adopted at Braddock and Duquesne and 
had proved so satisfactory to all concerned that the union 
felt constrained to accept it. But the leaders flatly rejected 

106 


Homestead 


the other proposals and imposed so many operating con- 
ditions, including participation in determining selling 
prices, thata strike ora lock-out seemed inevitable when, 
after adjuring the Chairman to stand firm, Mr. Carnegie 
sailed for Scotland. 

Mr. Abbott, left to interpret his instructions, private 
as well as public, as best he might, refused to accept the 
stringent terms prescribed by the union and, reluctantly 
deciding to continue operations, called upon the county 
authorities for protection of property and new employés. 
The Sheriff assured him that he need have no apprehen- 
sion on this score and promptly steamed up the river with 
a posse of a hundred men to fulfil his pledge. A great 
preponderance of workmeh, fully equipped for battle, 
awaited them at the dock and dared them to try to land. 
Retreat obviously was the better part of valor and the 
Sheriff escorted his henchmen back to their firesides. 

Intimidated by threats of violence and destruction 
of property, Mr. Abbott accepted a summons to parley 
with the officers of the union and signed an agreement 
for three years which in effect constituted a complete 
surrender. 

Results were disastrous. The price of rails declined 
steadily from $36 at the close of 1889 to $25.75 in 1890, 
and so on to $22.50 in May, 1892, when the firm was los- 
ing money on its chief products and was heading straight, 
in Mr. Frick’s opinion expressed convincingly to the 
Congressional Committee, to ‘‘eventual bankruptcy.”’ 

Obviously when the time approached for renewing or 
revising the agreement the financial prospect was bad 

107 


Frick the Man 


enough, but theactual situation was worse. Of thethirty- 
eight hundred men employed at Homestead only about 
eleven hundred were native-born, more than eight hun- 
dred could not speak English and the remaining two 
thousand were incapable of perceiving the futility of 
requiring a strangled goose to continue to lay golden 
eggs. A more fallow field for ambitious labor agitators 
could not be imagined. The Amalgamated Association, 
moreover, had demonstrated its power three years before 
and in consequence had strengthened its position, with 
the widespread Knights of Labor in sympathetic accord 
in a Presidential year. 

Mr. Carnegie had promulgated his famous dictum to 
individual laborers,‘“Thou shalt not seek thy neighbor's 
job’’ and was still controlling owner of the property. 
That he would uphold his own adage and repudiate any 
manager who should propose to fill the places of striking 
workmen was considered a certainty. The fact that he 
had once, in precisely similar circumstances, in the coke 
strike, overridden and forced the resignation of Mr. Frick 
seemed conclusive; and yet— 

Why had Mr. Abbott been supplanted? What did the 
accession of Mr. Frick portend? 

Here, of all managers, was THz Man who had never 
truckled, never yielded, and who seemed impervious to 
either threats or danger of assaults. He appeared to the 
officials of both the miners’ union and of the potentially 
forceful Knights as the most formidable lion in their 
path to industrial control. Never could they hope for a 
more favorable opportunity to break his rapidly growing 

108 


Homestead 


authoritativeness among employers. Then, if ever, was 
the time to subject him, single handed and alone, to the 
ordeal of battle for supremacy. 

Mr. Frick did not welcome the test; he stood ready to 
concede much for a peace that would enable the other 
plants to forge ahead at the unprecedented pace they had 
struck; ‘‘the magnitude of our business,’’ he wrote to 
the chief stockholder, ‘‘is such that there are plenty of 
important matters to take up without being troubled 
_ with strikes.”’ 

It was to avoid being caught in the meshes of unpre- 

paredness which had placed the firm at the mercy of the 
union that Mr. Frick invited the Amalgamated Associa- 
tion to take up the matter in January, but to no purpose. 
The union leaders neither accepted nor rejected the sug- 
gestion; they simply ignored it; and two months passed 
before unceasing insistence evoked a response in the form 
of a proposed new scale providing a general advance in 
wages all along the line. 
_ As the most that had been expected was maintenance 
of the old rates, this demand was gravely disconcerting, 
but conferences ensued in good temper until the last of 
May, when the firm submitted a counter scale reducing 
the wages of 325 of the most highly paid employés from 
15 to 18 per cent and continuing the compensation of 2,475 
lower paid men at the old rates. 

‘The scales,’’ wrote Mr. Frick to Superintendent Pot- 
ter under date of May 30th, 1892, “have had most careful 
consideration, with a desire to act toward our employés 
in the most liberal manner. A number of rates have been 

109 


Frick the Man 


advanced upon your recommendation, and the wages 
which will be earned thereunder are considerably in ad- 
vance of those received by the employés of any of our 
competitors in the same lines. You can say to the com- 
mittee that these scales are in all respects the most liberal 
that can be offered. We do not care whether a man be- 
longs to a union or not, nor do we wish to interfere. He 
may belong to as many unions or organizations as he 
chooses, but we think our employés at Homestead Steel 
Works would fare much better working under the system 
in vogue at Edgar Thomson and Duquesne.”’ 

The schedules were submitted immediately to the Joint 
Committee, accompanied by this communication and by 
a request from the Chairman for a response not later than 
June 24th, pending the expiration of the existing agree- 
ment on June 30th. 

On June 23rd the union leaders sought a conference 
and Chairman Frick and Superintendent Pottermet them. 
Three questions were raised : 

1. Should the minimum selling price of steel determin- 
ing the wage-scale remain at $25 per ton as required by 
the men or be reduced to $22 as asked by the firm? After 
full discussion the union offered to reduce the amount to 
$24 and the firm conceded an increase to $23. 

2. Should the date of operation of the scale be changed 
from June 30th to December 31st, as desired by the firm 
to facilitate the making of annual contracts with con- 
sumers, or be retained, by wish of the union, to avert any 
disadvantage from negotiating during the slack period 
of manufacturing? 

110 


Homestead 


3. Shoulda reduction in tonnage rates be made in three 
departments to compensate in part for the large sums 
expended for improvements and new machinery which 
greatly increased the output of every workman with- 
out requiring additional exertion? 

These differences were not vital; the first indeed was 
trivial and the other twocould have been adjusted readily 
but for extrinsic considerations of prestige bearing upon 
general rolling-mill scales then under discussion through- 
- out the country. So no further concession was offered by 
either side and the issue of dominance, if not of actual 
control, between capital and labor, personified by owners 
and unions, was squarely joined and Mr. Frick, relying 
upon theinviolability of “‘property,’’ noless than of ‘life 
and liberty,’’ guaranteed by the Constitution, decided to 
close the mills on July 1st and to reopen them, unless pre- 
vented by force, on July 6th. 

There ensued a week of mildly ominous calm as viewed 
by the public and the Press, but under the surface active 
preparations were being made for the struggle which had 
then become imminent and unavoidable. The workmen 
quietly elected an Advisory Committee of five members 
from each of their eight lodges, with Mr. Hugh O’Don- 
nell, one of the skilled employés earning $144 per month 
on an eight-hour shift, as Chairman, and vested it with 
full authority. 

Action was prompt and decisive. On July 1st, the day 
following cessation of operations, the Committee adopted 
resolutions whose tenor was indicated by the following 
announcement by the Chairman: 

III 


Frick the Man 


The Committee has, after mature deliberation, decided to organ- 
ize their forces on a truly military basis. The force of four thousand 
men has been divided into three divisions or watches, each of these 
divisions is to devote eight hours of the twenty-four to the task of 
watching the plant. The Commanders of these divisions are to have 
as assistants eight captains composed of one trusted man from each 
of the eight local lodges. These Captains will report to the division 
Commanders, who in turn will receive the orders from the Ad- 
visory Committee. During their hours of duty these Captains will 
have personal charge of the most important posts, i.e., the river 
front, the water gates and pumps, the railway stations, and the 
main gates of the plant. The girdle of pickets will file reports to the 
main headquarters every half-hour, and so complete and detailed 
is the plan of campaign that in ten minutes’ time the Committee 
can communicate with the men at any given point within a radius 
of five miles. In addition to all this, there will be held in reserve a 
force of 800 Slavs and Hungarians. The brigade of foreigners will 
be under the command of two Hungarians and two interpreters. 


So audacious a manifesto as this had never before and, 
to our knowledge, has never since been put forth. It her- 
alded much more than a renewal of the policy of terror- 
ism which had proved successful three years previous. 
It was an avowal of a right to possession of property be- 
longing undeniably to others and of determination to re- 
tain occupancy by ‘‘forces organized on a truly military 
basis’’ to repel invasion from whatever soutce. 

The plan was put into effect forthwith. First the fore- 
men representing the owners were “‘stopped and intimi- 
dated”’ at the gate, prevented from entering the mill and 
“turned back.’’ Then the Sheriff, acting for the County, 
visited the scene and ‘‘tried to make an arrangement’’ 
with Chairman O’Donnell and other members of the Ad- 
visory Committee, ‘‘to allow me to put watchmen in for 
the protection of the works.”’ 

112 


Homestead 


“What did they say to that2’’ asked Chairman Oates 
of the Congressional Committee, later on. 

“They said there was no necessity for watchmen 
there,’ the Sheriff replied, ‘‘that it was not required, 
that there was no danger of that property being de- 
stroyed. I explained to them that I was not the judge 
of that and that this firm had notified me to that effect 
and that under the law I was compelled to protect their 
property.”’ 

‘So you came away. What did you do next?”’ 

‘Then I came back to town.”’ 

“What did you do next?”’ 

‘‘T sent up twelve deputies from my office force. They 
were not permitted to enter the works. They were driven 
away. 

When they reached the station, the Deputy Sheriff in 
charge of the posse testified, “‘Some of the men came 
up to us and the spokesman said “What are you fellows 
doing here?’ I said ‘I am a special officer representing 
the Sheriff of Allegheny County to put deputies in the 
mill to act asa guard and to protect the property for the 
Company.’ Hesaid, ‘No deputy will ever go inthere alive.’ 
There was one gentleman, the doctor up there, who had 
been suggested as a possible deputy and who knew nearly 
every man connected with the lockout, and he said, ‘I 
would not go there because I know they would kill me 
as quickly as anybody else; I should be afraid for my life 
to go near that mill.’ I returned to the city and reported 
to the Sheriff.”’ 

Meanwhile, Mr. Frick, having anticipated these very 

113 


Frick the Man 


happenings, was making his own arrangements for the 
recovery of the firm's property. On June 25th, the day 
following the breakdown of negotiations, havingalready 
been assured by the Pinkerton agency that an adequate 
number of men could be supplied for protective service 
at short notice, he sent the following letter: 


The Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, 
Pittsburgh, Pa., June 25th, 1892. 


Dear sir: I am in receipt of your favor of the 22nd. 

We will want 300 guards for service at our Homestead mills as a 
measure of precaution against interference with our plan to start 
operation of the works on July 6th, 1892. 

The only trouble we anticipate is that an attempt will be made 
to prevent such of our men with whom we will by that time have 
made satisfactory arrangements from going to work, and possibly 
some demonstration of violence upon the part of those whose 
places have been filled, or most likely by an element which usually 
is attracted to such scenes for the purpose of stirring up trouble. 

We are not desirous that the men you send shalt be armed unless 
the occasion properly calls for such a measure later on for the pro- 
tection of our employés or property. We shall wish these guards 
to be placed upon our property and there to remain unless called 
into other service by the civil authorities to meet an emergency 
that is not likely to arise. 

These guards should be assembled at Ashtabula, Ohio, not later 
than the morning of July 5th, when they may be taken by train to 
McKee’s Rocks, or some other point upon the Ohio River below 
Pittsburgh, where they can be transferred to boats and landed 
within the inclosures of our premises at Homestead. We think 
absolute secrecy essential in the movement of these men so that 
no demonstration can be made while they are en route. 

Specific arrangements for movement of trains and connection 
with boats will be made as soon as we hear from you as to the cer- 
tainty of having the men at Ashtabula at the time indicated. 

As soon as your men are upon the premises we will notify the 


114 


Homestead 


Sheriff and ask that they be deputized either at once or immediately 
upon an outbreak of such a character as to render such a step 
desirable. 
Yours very truly 
H. C. Frick, 
Robert A. Pinkerton, Esq. Chairman. 
New York City, N.Y. 


“Why,’’ Mr. Frick was asked later in connection with 
the Congressional inquiry, ‘“‘did the company call upon 
the Pinkertons for watchmen to protect their property?”’ 

‘“Because,’’-he replied, ‘“we did not see how else we 
could get protection. We only wanted them for watch- 
men to protect our property and see that workmen we 
would take to Homestead—and we had had applications 
from many men to go there to work—were not interfered 
with.”’ 

“Did you doubt the ability of the Sheriff to enforce 
order at Homestead and protect your property?”’ 

“Yes, sit; with local deputies.”’ 

“Why?” 

‘For the reason that three years ago our concern had 
an experience similar to this. We felt the necessity of a 
change at the works; thata scale should be adopted based 
on the sliding price of billets, and we asked the county 
authorities for protection. The workmen began tactics 
similar to those employed in the present troubles. Under 
that stress, in fear of the Amalgamated Association, an 
agreement was made and work was resumed. We did not 
propose this time to be placed in that position.”’ 

‘The Pinkerton men, as generally understood, had been 
summoned and all arrangements made with them to be 

1s 


Frick the Man 


on hand in case of failure by the Sheriff to afford pro- 
tection. Is that a fact or not?”’ 

“The facts concerning the engagement of the Pinkerton 
men are these: From past experience, not only with the 
present Sheriff but with all others, we have found that 
he has been unable to furnish us with a sufficient number 
of deputies to guard our property and protect the men who 
were anxious to work on our terms. As the Amalgamated 
men from the 1st of July had surrounded our works, placed 
guards at all the entrances, and at all avenues or roads 
leading to our establishment and for miles distant there- 
from, we felt that for the safety of our property, and in 
order to protect our workmen, it was necessary for us to 
secure our own watchmen to assist the Sheriff, and we 
knew of no other source from which to obtain them than 
from Pinkerton agencies, and to them we applied. 

‘‘We brought the watchmen hereas quietly as possible; 
and had them taken to Homestead at an hour of the night 
when we hoped to have them enter our works without 
any interference whatever and without meeting anybody. 
We proposed to land them on our own property, and all 
our efforts were to prevent the possibilities of a collision 
between our former workmen and our watchmen.”’ 

The plans were carefully laid and shrewdly executed. 
On the morning of July 5th the Pinkerton guards num- 
bering three hundred wereassembled at Ashtabula, Ohio, 
conveyed by train to Bellevue, transferred to two barges 
and towed by tugboats up the river after dark to Pitts- 
burgh, where boxes containing arms had already been 
placed upon the barges. | 

116 


Homestead 


Scrupulous care was taken to comply with all provi- 
sions of law. Superintendent Potter, by suggestion of the 
firm's counsel, Messrs. Knox and Reed, was warned by 
Chairman Frick that ‘‘no matter what indignities he may 
be subjected to, neither he nor any of the Company's em- 
ployés should do any act of aggression nor under any 
circumstances resort to the use of arms unless for the pro- 
tection of their lives,’ and Captains Heinde and Kline, 
in charge of the watchmen, were ordered by the Pinker- 
tons not to open the boxes until they were placed in the 
mills and even then to do nothing until regularly sworn 
in as deputies by the Sheriff and compelled by their oaths 
to obey his orders. 

All promised well when, shrouded in darkness, the tug- 
boat Lrrrzz Birt set forth towing the two barges toward 
Homestead. Aboard the boat were Captain Rodgers and 
crew, Superintendent Potter and several of his superin- 
tendents, Captains Heinde and Kline and finally ex-Sher- 
iff Joseph H. Gray, who had been deputized by Sheriff 
McCleary to act as his representative and was supposed 
by the others to be in command of the expedition by vir- 
tue of the following communication which he presented 
to Superintendent Potter at the dock: 


June sth, 1892. 
John A. Potter: 
Dear Sir: This will introduce Col. Joseph H. Gray, deputy sheriff. 
Yours truly, 
Knox & REED. 


You will understand that Col. Gray, as the representative of the 
sheriff, is to have control of all action in case of trouble. 
Knox & REED. 


117 


Frick the Man 


Although subsequently the Sheriff admitted that this 
authorization was added to the line of introduction by 
his own ‘‘direction and sanction,’’ he testified further 
that Deputy Gray was not actually empowered to take 
control in case of trouble but was merely “sent along to 
preserve the peace’’ and “‘if there was liable to be a col- 
lision’’ over landing, to instruct the guards to ‘back out 
and leave’’; but the Deputy did not reveal the limitations 
of his personal authority and the little fleet set forth 
under a nominal commander bereft of powers either to 
act himself or to deputize others to act for him. 

The military organization created by the Advisory Com- 
mittee to prevent either the owners or the State authori- 
ties from regaining possession of the six-million-dollar 
plant proved farmoreefficient thananybody had supposed 
it to be. No sooner had the Lrrrrz Bix got under way, 
with the two barges in tow, about midnight, than word 
of its departure was flashed by an alert spy to Chairman 
O'Donnell in Homestead, and the moment the report was 
confirmed from Lock No. 1, three miles below the town, 
the steam whistles shrieked the alarm and the entire pop- 
ulation scrambled out of their beds into the streets and 
rushed to the river banks. 

Rifle fire was opened on the tugboat and barges about 
a mile below Homestead and was continued eagerly but 
wildly, scoring many hits but finding no human targets, 
while the Lrrrrz Bix puffed doggedly along past the 
town to the landing place on the firm’s property and the 
crew threw out a stage plank. The mob of a thousand or 
mote at this point were clambering down the bank when 

118 


Homestead 


a young man leaped forward and threw himself flat upon 
the stage and, as Captain Heinde stepped forward to push 
him off, he fired the first bullet that reached its mark and 
brought the Captain to the deck witha bullet in his thigh. 

Instantly the crowds along the river and on the bank 
pelted the boat and barges with bullets and rushed for- 
ward to board them, but the Pinkerton men, firing then 
for the first time, repelled the assault and drove the as- 
sailants back to their intrenchments protected by pig iron 
and iron plates. Firing then practically ceased for a time 
while both sides attended to their wounded. 

The lack of a responsible commander then became even 
mote serious than at any previous time. Twice Captain 
Heinde had urged Deputy Sheriff Gray to deputize the 
watchmen and twice the Sheriff's representative had re- 
fused, saying that it would be time enough to do that 
when they had obtained possession of the mills. This im- 
posed upon him the necessity of disregarding his own 
orders or abandoning his men to certain death. He finally 
authorized distribution of twelve rifles to men whom he 
sent below in the hope that others armed only with night 
sticks would suffice to resist invasion successfully. This 
project naturally failed when he fell unconscious at the 
first fire and the use of guns was required to ep the 
boarding crowd. 

While this fighting was taking place at the landing 
several watchmen on the first barge were wounded and 
Superintendent Potter, discovering that their comrades 
were retaliating and beginning to unpack the boxes, or- 
dered them to stop, and was obeyed. 

119 


Frick the Man 


This was the anomalous condition of affairs when, fol- 
lowing the tacit armistice, a consultation participated 
in by Deputy Sheriff Gray, Superintendent Potter, Cap- 
tain Nordrum, in place of Captain Heinde, and Captain 
Rodgers, shipmaster, was held on the boat. 

“It was a question,’’ testified Mr. Potter, “‘whether 
we could get into the works by force or whether we 
should let the thing take its course. Mr. Gray did not 
feel like taking the responsibility upon himself, and I 
would not. He refused to take any action and I felt that 
my instructions had been carried out. It was decided 
that the wounded had to be taken care of and that we 
would leave the barges to remain where they were, as 
the crowd seemed to be going away, and we thought in 
an hour or two or three hours, there could be a peace- 
able landing made."’ 

So the tugboat steamed away to Port Perry where Su- 
perintendent Potter and the six wounded men took a 
train for Pittsburgh. Two hours later the tugboat bearing 
Captain Rodgers, his crew of six men, Deputy Sheriff 
Gray and a Pinkerton man, returned to Homestead. The 
Captain testified : 

We went back with the intent to land with the barges and stay 
with them, or go on to town for further commissary supplies which 
had been left behind. In anticipation we would be fired on we de- 
termined to fight under the colors, and so ran up two flags, one at 
each end. When we attempted to land alongside the barge we were 
met with heavy volleys from both sides of the river, particularly 
the Homestead side, and from behind intrenchments. The firing 
was so heavy the pilot and engineer were compelled to leave their 


posts and we were compelled to stop the boat, which drifted around 
at the mercy of the mob, which continued firing. This lasted until 


120 


Homestead 


we drifted away from the point and to some extent out of the range 
of the guns. The shore was lined with thousands on the Home- 
stead side, and a good number on the opposite side, all of whom 
seemed bent on destroying our lives and our boat. Holes in the 
boat show missiles were fired from artillery. This firing gradually 
died away until we were 14 miles from Homestead, when it ceased. 
When we were drifting to the point, in point-blank range of the 
mob, and only 30 or 40 feet away, our destruction would have been 
inevitable had we not used means of defence we found on the boat. 
We did this with such effect that the mob scattered and we were 
enabled to put the pilot and engineer at their posts and so get away. 
I can only say, in conclusion, that I have never heard or read of 
any such inhuman action as that of this mob, or a part of it, in 
shooting at wounded men, and doing it with fiendish delight. 
The plight of the three hundred watchmen, confined 
in the stranded and deserted barges, was desperate indeed. 
Surrounded by thousands of bloodthirsty enemies bent 
solely upon their complete extinction and equipped with 
all diabolical agencies of destruction, they could not even 
fight for their lives. Any one who showed a head for an 
instant at a hatchway or porthole gasping for a breath 
of air was pelted with bullets by sharpshooters; oil was 
pumped upon the surface of the water and set on fire; 
natural gas, directed from a large main, was exploded by 
rockets; dynamite was hurled upon the barges to blow 
them to bits; burning rafts were floated down to set them 
on fire; cannon blazed at them from the opposite bank; 
—such was the inferno in which the prisoners barely ex- 
isted until, without hope of succor and destitute even of 
food, they raised a white flag in token of surrender, only 
to see it riddled by bullets. 
A second attempt to save their lives if possible, late in 
the afternoon, drew an answering signal from the Ad- 
121 


Frick the Man 


visory Committee, and Chairman O'Donnell, having ad- 
dressed the crowd who, in his own words,’ ‘pledged them- 
selves to a man to let the watchmen go unharmed and in 
peace if they surrendered,’’ went down to the boat and 
accepted the sole condition asked by the prisoners “that 
you will give us free passage from Homestead.”’ 

‘‘When all was ready,’’ continued Mr. O’Donnell in 
his testimony, ‘‘I gave the order and they marched out, 
and I remained on the boat until the last man. I will state 
by this time people were coming up, down, and across 
the river, and that the barges were in the hands of the 
rabble. I left the boat and they were marched to therink, 
and the people formed on either side—men, women, and 
children—and I must say they were subjected to very in- 
human treatment, which our men were powerless to pro- 
tect them from, and I know that many of our men’have 
received scars and bruises in their endeavor to protect 
the Pinkertons. We took them to the rink and that night 
we sent them off.’’ 

The “‘very inhuman treatment’’ noted by Mr. O’Don- 
nell, who incidentally followed the procession, was de- 
picted in his book by Mr. Bridge from information gar- 
nered from newspaper accounts, in these words: 


The doors of the barges were flung open and the victorious 
strikers crowded into the barges. The reporters who followed them 
found one dead and eleven wounded watchmen. The rest were dis- 
armed and marched out, while the crowd swarmed over the boat 
for loot. Cases of provisions were broken open and the contents 
distributed among the women and children; bedding and every 
portable thing was taken away. Then the barges were set on fire; 
and the strikers turned to escort their prisoners to a public hall in 

122 


Homestead 


town. One by one, with bared heads, the latter descended the 
gangplank, climbed up the incline to the mill yard, and across it 
to the public road; and never did captives suffer more in running a 
gauntlet of redskins. For nearly a mile the watchmen walked, ran, 
or crawled through a lane of infuriated men, women, and children; 
and at every step they were struck with fists, clubs, and stones. 
Their hats, satchels, and coats were snatched away from them; 
and in many cases they were robbed of their watches and money. 
Not a man escaped injury. One of them, Connors, unable to move 
and defend himself, was deliberately shot by one of the strikers 
and then clubbed. Another, named Edwards, also wounded and 
helpless, was clubbed by another striker with the butt end of a 
- musket. Both of these men died; and another became insane and 
committed suicide as a result of the fearful beating received after 
surrender. About thirty others were afterwards taken to the hos- 
pital with broken arms and disjointed ankles, shattered noses, 
gouged eyes, bruised heads, and injured backs. 


Sheriff McCleary, at the instigation of Mr. Frick, who 
provided a special train, went to Homestead at midnight 
accompanied by President Weihe of the Amalgamated 
Association and brought the watchmen back to Pitts- 
burgh hospitals. The day’s casualties were ten killed and 
more than sixty wounded. 

The rout was complete; the triumph hardly less im- 
pressive than that which followed the first battle of Bull 
Run; the victory the most costly of its kind ever won. 


123 


1X 
The State Intervenes 


HE morning of July 7th dawned upon a wholly 
peaceful community, with the Advisory Com- 
mittee of the Amalgamated Association in ab- 
solute possession of the properties owned by 
the Carnegie Steel Company and in full military control 
of the town of Homestead with its ten thousand inhabit- 
ants and all the approaches by land and water to both. 
A state of siege was declared. Strangers were excluded, 
citizens were arrested without warrant, telegrams to 
newspapers and individuals were censored and reporters 
suspected of writing unfavorable accounts were kicked 
out hatless and coatless to grope their way through the 
darkness of night to Pittsburgh as best they could. 
‘‘Mob law,’’ a special correspondent who had been 
thus treated telegraphed to the New York Times, “‘is 
absolute. Never were rioters better armed. Not only have 
they in their possession the guns captured from the three 
hundred Pinkertons, with all the ammunition belonging 
to that fateful expedition, but they have also been sup- 
plied with rifles by three independent military organi- 
zations of Pittsburgh, known as the Hibernian Rifles, 
and by a Polish gun club. Today they received a box of 
ammunition from Philadelphia, and yesterday one of the 
strikers informed a reporter that enough dynamite was 
124 


The State Intervenes 


at their disposal to blow all the Carnegie works out of 
sight—a remark which was exaggerated into a rumor 
that they would destroy the works before non-union men 
were permitted to enter them. 

“Reinforcements are hourly pouring into Homestead 
fromall quarters of the country—lawless, desperate, mur- 
derous characters. They all claim to be workmen, sym- 
pathetic and interested—sympathetic over the trouble 
which has fallen upon their brethren, interested in the 
final result. 

“It is impossible to reach the Carnegie works. Today 
Mr. Frick’s assistant, Mr. Childs, accompanied by Mr. 
Potter, the Superintendent of the works, walked toward 
the works. At the railway track they were stopped. 

‘We desire to visit the works,’ said Mr. Childs. 

“You cannot visit them,’ was the reply. 

“You know who I am?’ asked Mr. Potter. 

Yes, but we have orders not to allow any one to enter 


the works. 

_ There was no strike, no lockout; there had not been at 
any time; work had simply ceased automatically when 
the time fixed by the agreement expired and terms for 
continuance had not been arranged. It was no mere riot, 
it was organized rebellion as clearly as Shay’s in the early 
history of the Republic. 

“It was not’’ sternly declared Chief Justice Paxson 
later, ‘‘a cry of ‘bread or blood’ from famished lips or an 
ebullition of angry passions from a sudden outrage or 
provocation. It wasa deliberate attempt of men without 


a grievance to wrest from others their lawfully acquired 
126 


Frick the Man 


property and to control them in their use and enjoy- 
ment of it. 

‘‘A mere mob, collected upon the impulse of the moment, 
without any definite object beyond the gratification of 
its sudden passions, does not commit treason, although 
it destroys property and takes human life. But when a 
large number of men arm and organize themselves by 
divisions and companies, appoint officers, and engage 
in a common purpose to defy the law, to resist its officers, 
and to deprive any portion of their fellow-citizens of the 
rights to which they are entitled under the Constitu- 
tion and laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it 
is a levying of war against the State, and the offense is 
treason.” 

This phase of the situation, imperceptible to the ex- 
ultant rioters, was one which could not fail to give rise 
to uneasiness in the minds of the leaders of the Amalga- 
mated Association and their experienced advisers. After 
all, it was a matter, not of wages for ignorant workmen 
known to be fully paid, but of establishment of their 
own power as officials of the union, that constituted the 
chief stake in the contest. True, they still held fast the 
powerful factors which they had counted upon originally 
to ensure their success. Neither of the two great political 
organizations would dare antagonize the millions of 
workingmen whose votes could and probably would be 
massed by their various unions throughout the entire 
country in the forthcoming National election. Aggres- 
sive Democratic and timorous Republican newspapers 


would be equally solicitous for the “‘rights’’ of labor 
126 


The State Intervenes 


as contrasted with the “‘privileges’’ of capital, and rea- 
son would be submerged in waves of public sympathy. 

The wholly practical leaders of both parties would 
point to dreaded tariff reduction as suspended by a thread 
over the heads of steel manufacturers, extinction of ‘‘pro- 
tection’ would be certain in the event of Democratic 
success, atid severance of the tacit alliance which had 
provided heavy duties would surely follow a Repub- 
lican defeat which could be attributed to the selfish ob- 
duracy of a favored ‘‘infant industry.”’ 

The consequences to the Carnegie shareholders clearly 
would be disastrous if a settlement satisfactory to both 
unions and men should not be effected before election day, 
—and Mr.Carnegie, who owned a majority of the stock, 
had expressed his approval and pledged his support of 
unionism over and over again and in one signal instance 
had overridden the very manager who now blocked the 
way of the ambitious labor leaders. Surely not only the 
controlling owner but all other stockholders, every one 
of whom was a lifelong Republican, a high protectionist 
and an eager recipient of political favors, both past and 
to come, could be relied upon to temporize for permanent 
advantage. 

All? Yes, all but one; only one of all the Company's 
shareholders, only one of all contributing Republicans, 
only one of all tenderly nurtured manufacturers, to beat! 
It looked easy. So the leaders argued. AND YET— 

It might be the better part of valor to waive magnani- 
mously the claims of the men, to allay conceivable pub- 
lic resentment at their shocking resort to brutality and 

127 


Frick the Man 


murder and thereby, in any case and above all, to save 
the face of the union. 

No time was lost in trying to appease public opinion. 
On the day following the battle Chairman O'Donnell, 
tacitly admitting that all other demands had lacked 
justification, singled out the insistence that the date of 
fixing the scale of wages should not be changed from 
June to December as the one unalterable resolve which 
‘“‘under no circumstances’’ would be modified, and de- 


clared that ‘‘the final adjustment must be made now.” 


Anothermember of the Amalgamated Association who 
had the confidence of the Sheriff informed that official 
that mere acceptance by the company of a proposal to 
“confer with,’’ i.e., to recognize, the union, would suf- 
fice to ‘stop the rioting.” 

Mr. Frick publicly rejoined that terms ceased to be an 
issue when the company was deprived of possession of 
its property by force, and murder of its employés began. 
The sole question was whether the Carnegie Company 
or the Amalgamated Association should have absolute 
control of the company’s property, and this could be an- 
swetred only by the State authorities. 

‘We today,”’ he continued, ‘‘are turned out of our plant 
at Homestead and have been since the first of July. There 
is nobody in the mills up there now; there is simply a 
mass of idle machinery with nobody to look after it.”’ 

He refused to confer with the officers of the union 
whose followers were rioting and destroying property. 

‘‘Imay say with the greatest emphasis,’’ he concluded 
calmly, “‘that under no circumstances will we have any 

128 


The State Intervenes 


further dealings with the Amalgamated Association as 
an organization. This is final.’ 

“What of the future?”’ he was asked. 

‘That is in the hands of the authorities of Allegheny 
County. If they are unable to cope with the situation, it 
is Clearly the duty of the Governor of the State to see 
that we are installed in our property and permitted to 
operate our plant unmolested.”’ 

On the evening of the day—July 8th, 1892—-when this 
vitally important declaration was published, a second 
son, Henry Clay, junior, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Frick, 
and there were grave doubts of the survival of either 
mother or son for many days. The father, after a sleepless 
night, was at his desk as usual, recipient of hourly bul- 
letins, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the following day. 

Meanwhile, beginning on the day of the battle, Sheriff 
McCleary and Governor Robert E. Pattison were ex- 
changing telegrams, as follows: 


Juty 6.—SuerirF To GoverNor.— Situation at Homestead is very 
grave. My deputies were driven from the ground and watchmen 
sent by mill owners attacked. Shots were exchanged and some men 
killed and wounded. Unless prompt measures are taken to prevent 
it further bloodshed and great destruction of property may be ex- 
pected. 

The striking workmen and their friends on the ground number 
at least 5,000 and the civil authorities are utterly unable to cope 
with them. Wish you would send representative at once. 


GovERNoR To SHEeriFF.—Local authorities must exhaust every 
means at their command for the preservation of peace. 


SaME Date—Suerirr.—The works at Homestead are in possession 
of an armed mob; they number thousands. The mill owners this 
morning attempted to land a number of watchmen, when an attack 


129 


Frick the Man 


was made on boats and 6 men on boats were badly wounded, a 
number of men on shore were killed and wounded; how many 
can not say. The boat later came down and was fired on from the 
shore and pilot compelled to abandon pilot house. I have no means 
at my command to meet emergency; a large armed force will be re- 
quired; any delay may lead to further bloodshed and great de- 
struction of property. You are, therefore, urged to act at once. 


Govzernor.—How many deputies have you sworn in and what 
measures have you taken to enforce order and protect property? 
The county authorities must exhaust every means to preserve peace. 


Same Date—Snerirr.—After personal visit to Homestead works 
yesterday morning and careful inquiry as to surroundings, I en- 
deavored to gather a force to guard works, but was unable to obtain 
any. I then sent twelve deputies (almost my entire regular force) 
to Homestead, but they were driven from the grounds. The mill 
owners early this morning sent an armed guard of 300 men by river. 
Boats containing this guard were fired on while on their way up the 
river, and when they attempted to land at company’s ground were 
met by an armed mob, which had broken down company’s fences 
and taken possession of the landing. An encounter ensued, in which 
a number were wounded on both sides; several are reported dead. 
The coroner has just informed me that one of the guards has just 
died. The guards have not been able to land, and the works are in 
possession of the mob, who are armed with rifles and pistols and 
are reported to have one cannon. The guards remain on the barges 
near landing, having been abandoned by the steamer which towed 
them there. The civil authorities here are powetless to meet the 
situation. An armed and disciplined force is needed at once to pre- 
vent further loss of life. I therefore urge immediate action on your 
part. | 


GoverNnor.—Your telegram indicates that you have not made any 
effort to execute the law to enforce order, and I must insist upon 
you calling upon all citizens for an adequate number of deputies. 


Jury 7.—Sheriff reports inability to secure adequate force; makes 
no request for military assistance. 


Jury 10.—Suerirr.—The situation at Homestead has not improved, 
while all is quiet there. The strikers are in control, and openly ex- 
ptess to me and to the public their determination that the works 


130 


The State Intervenes 


shall not be operated unless by themselves. After making all efforts 
in my power I have failed to secure a posse respectable enough in 
numbers to accomplish anything, and I am satisfied that no posse 
raised by civil authority can do anything to change the condition 
of affairs, and that any attempt by an inadequate force to restore 
the right of law will only result in further armed resistance and 
consequent loss of life. Only a large military force will enable me 
to control matters. I believe if such force is sent the disorderly ele- 
ment will be overawed and order will be restored. I therefore call 
upon you to furnish me such assistance. 


GovzerNor.—Have ordered Maj. Gen. George R. Snowden with 
the division of the National Guards of Pennsylvania to your sup- 
port at once. Put yourself in communication with him. Communi- 
cate further particulars. 


Conformably to arrangements made in pursuance of 
this order, on July 12th the entire division of the Penn- 
sylvania National Guard, comprising eight thousand 
men, headed by Major General Snowden and Sheriff 
McCleary, marched into Homestead and put the Carne- 
gie officials in possession, under continuing guard, of the 
Company's property without encountering resistance. 

Immediately upon issuing his order to General Snow- 
den, Governor Pattison, smarting under criticism for al- 
leged dilatoriness, made this statement: 

The law is very explicit on this point and left me no other way 
to act. Besides, Sheriff McCleary had not demanded military aid 
as yet. He had only suggested it. The statutes expressly provide 
that military aid shall not be furnished the civil authorities until 
the latter have exhausted every means in their power to quell an 
insurrection. The county is responsible to the mill owners for the 
preservation of their property. 

It is a very easy matter to talk about calling out the militia, but 
it is not so easy to call them in again. Witness the coke riots of 


last year when the militia was out for more than two months. The 
militia have a very salutary effect on turbulent strikers while they 


131 


Frick the Man 


are present, but their withdrawal is exceedingly likely to cause a 
renewal of hostilities. 


Mr. Samuel Gompers gravely doubted the Governor's 
right to call out the militia at all and politicians of both 
parties were disposed to complain for one reason or an- 
other, but the public generally coincided with the view 
expressed by the New Yorx Times on July 11th to this 
effect: 


The calmness, prudence, and faithful effort to avoid resort to the 
military power of the State, if possible, that have characterized 
Gov. Pattison’s conduct from the beginning give greater weight to 
the decision he now feels himself impelled to reach. And he has 
done well in that when he saw the time to att had come, he has 
resolved to use no half-way measures, but to employ all the force 
of the Commonwealth. There will be far less likelihood of resist- 
ance. There will be far greater certainty that resistance, if offered, 
will be overcome promptly and with the least possible injury to 
those who offer it. 

Whatever doubts may have lingered in honest minds 
were, inany case, dispelled by the Governor himself when 
a few days later he appeared personally upon the scene 
and declared flatly that he would spend the entire six mil- 
lion dollars in the State treasury and mortgage the com- 
monwealth itself ‘if necessary to maintain the National 
Guard here until lawand order are restored.” Incidentally 
he leased a house and announced his intention of remain- 
ing with the troops ‘‘until preservation of law shall be 
fully established and permanently guaranteed.”’ 

Thus was dissipated probably for all time any surmise 
that public authority could be defied successfully by a 
private organization, however strong in numbers or in 
wealth, within the boundaries of the United States. 

132 i 


The State Intervenes 


The firmness of the Governor, emphasized by the re- 
sounding bugle notes and reverberations of sunset guns 
from historic Braddock Field, where eight thousand 
troops had pitched their tents, left no doubt of the elimi- 
nation of rapine and murder as factors in the contest. 
Employers and employés now stood upon a level, obedi- 
ent to the law, and all phases of contention were resolved 
to a single issue: Could the workmen compel the com- 
pany to ‘‘recognize’’ and deal with the union? 

Undismayed by their failure to force a second quick 
surrender by menace to life and property, the Amalga- 
mated Association promptly expanded the field of con- 
troversy to comprise the entire force of men employed by 
the Carnegies by bringing the ‘‘sympathetic strike’’ into 
play. On the very day—July 13th—after the militia ar- 
rived, the union workers in three outside plants voted 
to break their agreement and strike unless Mr. Frick 
would confer with the union leaders of Homestead. Crisp 
and decisive came the laconic response: “‘Mr. Frick de- 
clines.’’ Two thousand men promptly walked out of 
the Upper and Lower mills in Pittsburgh, and from 
Beaver Falls, thirty miles down the Ohio river, came the 
following telegram: 

We, the Amalgamated Association of Beaver Falls, the rod mill, 
wire mill, and nail mill, have come to the conclusion that we will 
refuse to work until such time as H. C. Frick, Chairman of Car- 
negie Steel Company, Limited, is willing to confer with the Amal- 
gamated Association in order to settle the Homestead affair. 


ARTHUR THORNTON 
Chairman of Committee. 


pao 


Frick the Man 


Mr. Frick repeated this ultimatum to Superintendent 
Wrigley at Beaver Falls and added: 


You will please say to Mr. Thornton, Chairman of the Commit- 
tee, and ask him to so notify the men, that if they, composing the 
Amalgamated Association at Beaver Falls Mills, and who signed 
an agreement with us for one year, do not go to work on Monday 
(this was Friday) next, or when you are ready to start (the mills 
had been temporarily shut down for repairs) we shall consider 
their failure to do so as a cancellation of the agreement existing 
between us, and when these works do resume it will be as non- 
union, and former employés satisfactory to us who desire to work 
there will have to apply as individuals. You can say that under no 
circumstances will we confer with the men at Homestead as mem- 
bers of the Amalgamated Association. | | 

The Carnegie Steel Company, Limited. 
By H, C. Frick, Chairman. 


Simultaneously, with steam up in seven of the ten 
Homestead mills, Superintendent Potter addressed a per- 
sonal note to each of the former employés inviting him 
to return to his old position on July 18th, and the fol- 
lowing placard was posted conspicuously: 


THE CARNEGIE STEEL COMPANY, LIMITED. 


Notice—Individual applications for employment at the Home- 
stead Steel Works will be received by the General Superintendent 
either in person or by letter until 6 p.m. Thursday, July 21, 1892. 
It is our desire to retain in our service all of our old employés 
whose past records are satisfactory and who did not take part in 
the attempts which have been made to interfere with our right to 
manage our business. 

Such of our old employés as do not apply by the time above 
named will be considered as having no desire to re-enter our em- 
ployment, and the positions which they held will be given to 
other men, and those first applying will have the choice of unfilled 
positions for which they are suitable. 

The Carnegie Steel Company (Limited). 
H. C. Fricx, Chairman. 


134 


The State Intervenes 


Onthe1sth,177 men had returned towork;onthe 16th, 
190; and on the 17th, 220; many applications from out- 
siders were under consideration; and, ‘‘on the whole,”’ 
Mr. Frick wrote to President Morse of the Illinois Steel 
Company, ‘Iam pretty well pleased with the situation’’; 
adding, inresponse to another anxious inquiry,‘‘Youcan 
rest assured that we propose to manage our own business 
as we think proper and right.”’ 

Referring to the innumerable rumors then rife, the 
correspondent of the New Yorx Timss said: 

There have been published numerous statements to the effect 
that Mr. Frick is constantly guarded by detectives. There is no 
sign of a guard in his office. He can be seen at his desk from the 
public hall of the building, and anybody can reach the hall by 
going up in the elevator. 

Among Mr. Frick’s many callers on the day when this 
report appeared was an alert, intelligent Russian who 
called himself Alexander Berkman and professed to rep- 
resent a labor agency in New York. The interview lasted 
about half an hour and an appointment was made for 
further conversation, one week later, on Saturday, July 
231d,1892,—the date of a memorable and tragic episode. 


135 


x 
Attempted Assassination 


LEXANDER BERKMAN was a professed anarchist 

—‘‘a violent and destructive opponent of all 

government’’—and a disciple of the notori- 

ous Emma Goldman. He was born in the 

province of Vilna, Russia, in 1867, the son of a prosper- 

ous druggist, and while attending a college exploited 

views of such radical nature that he was expelled from 

the town by the authorities. He came to New York when 

nineteen years old and obtained a position on the Frei- 

HEIT, an organ of discontent, but soon began to mouth 

doctrines so extreme that John Most and his associates, 

fearing that he might embroil them in penal offenses 
against the government, compelled him to resign. 

After working for a short time as a compositor in New 
Haven, he obtained a place in the Singer sewing machine 
factory in Elizabeth, where he joined the Penkert nihil- 
ists who held that every individual was endowed with 
absolute right to do whatever he might please without 
regard to group opinion. Presently he drifted back to 
New York where he invented an ‘employment agency’ 
under the name of Simon Bachman and it was in the 
guise of a representative of that imaginary concern that 
he sought an interview with Mr. Frick and obtained 
an appointment for Saturday, July 23rd. He was then 

136 


Attempted Assassination 


twenty-five years old, of average height, slender, lithe, 
athletic, quick as a cat and sinewy as a leopard—a san- 
guinary fanatic, with all the cunning and daring of his 
breed, and yet a tyro. 

His first call, made the week before to spy out the ground, 
had revealed Mr. Frick’s custom of lunching more quickly 
and returning sooner than his office force. If Berkman had 
gone prepared on that occasion, when he arrived about 
half-past-one and found his quarry absolutely alone, un- 
suspecting and helpless in his desk-chair, he could have 
killed him with surety and ease. But inexperience, cir- 
cumstances and nerves combined to defeat his purpose. 

Too tense to bide his time, Berkman reached Pittsburgh 
on Thursday evening, and on Friday forenoon unable to 
restrain his impulses, he called twice at Mr. Frick’s office 
on the second floor of the Curonicize-TzLeGrapu building 
but got only as far as the anteroom owing to the presence 
of other callers. At noon on Saturday he appeared a third 
time; but, when word came that Mr. Frick would be un- 
able to see him for a few moments, he became so agitated 
that he left hurriedly and, apparently failing to calm his 
nerves sooner, did not return till nearly twoo’'clock, twenty 
minutes too late to find his victim alone. But this time 
he gave himself no opportunity to falter. Revolver in hand 
though still in his pocket, he brushed past the office 
boy, threw open the door and darted into the room draw- 
ing his weapon. 

As it happened, Mr. Frick was not in his desk-chair 
but in another at the end of the long table conversing 
with Vice Chairman Leishman and, rising quickly, was 

137 


Frick the Man 


turning to face the intruder when Berkman fired the first 
bullet, which pierced the lobe of his left ear, entered his 
neck near the base of his skull and passed down between 
his shoulders. Mr. Frick staggered and fell as Berkman 
quickly fired another bullet into the right side of his neck. 

A third attempt to kill was frustrated by Mr. Leishman 
who leaped forward and struck up the weapon just as it 
exploded and then clinched with the assailant. While his 
partner was wrestling to get hold of the revolver Mr. 
Frick, dazed and bleeding profusely from his wounds, 
struggled to his feet and, seizing Berkman around the 
waist, brought all three to the floor with a crash; but, 
interlocked though he was, the fanatic wrenched his left 
hand loose and seizing from his pocket a dagger made 
from a file stabbed viciously at his weakening adversary, 
the first thrust piercing his hip, the second jabbing his 
right side and the third tearing open his left leg below the 
knee. By a supreme effort, however, Mr. Frick managed to 
pinion the man’s arm and wrist to the floor and, throw- 
ing himself upon his body, held him fast till the clerks, 
aroused by the noise, rushed in and overpowered him. 

But the nihilist had not yet reached the end of his re- 
sources. He was still struggling when a Deputy Sheriff, 
greatly excited, rushed into the room and was trying to 
get a clear shot at him without imperilling others when 
Mr. Frick, who had been leaning on his desk and watching 
keenly, made a gesture of dissuasion. 

‘Don’t shoot,”’ he ejaculated, “‘leave him to the law; 
but raise his head and let me see his face.”’ 

This demand having been complied with none too 

138 


Attempted Assassination 


gently, the Sheriff, following the direction indicated by 
Mr. Frick’s index finger, saw the culprit’s jaw moving as 
if he were chewing something. Instantly his mouth was 
forced open and a capsule containing enough fulminite 
of mercury to blow all in the room to bits was extracted. 
This was too much for a carpenter who, having rushed 
in from his work hammer in hand, struck at, but missed, 
Berkman’s head and was drawing back for another blow 
when again Mr. Frick interceded faintly: 

“Don’t kill him, I tell you; let the law take its course.”’ 

The effort of speaking, following loss of blood which 
was still streaming from his wounds, exhausted him and he 
would have fallen if those nearest had not sprung to his 
support and borne him toa couch in the adjoining room. 
By this time policemen had arrived and taken charge of 
Berkman, and surgeons and physicians were not far behind. 

While the wounds inflicted by the nihilist’s jagged 
dagger were being staunched Mr. Frick arranged for noti- 
fication of his sick wife in such a way as to cause a mini- 
mum of anxiety and dictated the following telegram to 
his aged mother, who had been prostrated since the out- 
break of violence: 

Was shot twice but not dangerously. H. C. Frick. 

A similar message was cabled to Mr. Carnegie with 
these words added: 


There is no necessity for you to come home. I am still in shape 
to fight the battle out. 


Meanwhile the physicians, preparatory to probing, 
were providing an anaesthetic, which Mr. Frick reso- 
lutely refused to have administered, saying that it was 

139 


Frick the Man 


quite unnecessary and was inadvisable because he might 
help in locating the bullets. This surmise proved correct 
from the moment the surgeon inserted the instrument 
and pushed it forward gently and tentatively in pursu- 
ance of the patient’s directions until in each of the two 
searches he heard ‘‘There, that feels like it, Doctor,’’ 
and extracted both balls with unerring precision. | 

Mr. Frick, propped up in a chair at his desk after a 
brief rest, then proceeded to finish his day’s work, speci- 
fying the final terms of an essential loan which he had 
been negotiating, signing several official documents and 
many letters which he had dictated in the forenoon and 
finally, just before submitting to be carried to an ambu- 
lance, he made the following statement to be given to 
the press: 

This incident will not change the attitude of the Carnegie Steel 
Company toward the Amalgamated Association. I do not think I 


shall die but whether I do or not the Company will pursue the 
same policy and it will win. | 


He did not reach home until nearly eight o'clock, then 
suffering intensely but able to sing out to Mrs. Frick, in 
response to a query from her, as he was being borne past 
her bedroom door on a stretcher: 

“Don’t worry, Ada, I’m all right; I may come in 
later to say good-night; how is the baby?”’ 

Although not permitted to leave his bed that evening 
or for several days following, Mr. Frick summoned his 
secretary as soon as the doctors had left the next morn- 
ing and dictated and signed this notice to the new em- 
ployés, then numbering about five hundred: 

140 


Attempted Assassination 
CARNEGIE STEEL COMPANY, (LIMITED): 


NnoTicE:—To all men who entered our employ after July 1st, 1892: 
In no case and under no circumstances will a single one of you be 
discharged to make room for another man. You will keep your 
respective positions so long as you attend to your duties. Positive 
orders to this effect have been given to the general superintendent. 
By order of the board of managers, 
The Carnegie Steel Company, (Limited) 
H. C. Fricx, Chairman. 


Homestead Steel Works, July 24th, 1892. 


During the succeeding ten days, propped up in bed and 
swathed with bandages, witha telephone installed with- 
in reach and secretaries in constant attendance in defiance 
of the doctors’ orders, ignoring pain and scofling at the 
sweltering heat, Mr. Frick not only kept fully informed 
but personally dictated every move in the continuing 
contest and attended to all other details of the Com- 
pany’s business with customary thoroughness. 

On Wednesday, August 3rd, he was summoned to be- 
hold the passing of the spirit of his little son and name- 
sake, born less than four weeks previously, on the day 
of the battle at Homestead, and on Thursday afternoon 
his eyes rested upon the tiny coffin during a brief funeral 
service. The long evening, passed at the bedside of the 
stricken mother, finally wore away and he slept for a 
few houts. 

Rising and breakfasting promptly on the following 
morning, thirteen days after he had been attacked, he 
walked alone across the lawn, stepped upon an open 
street-car, entered his office on the stroke of eight and 
rang for the morning’s mail. 

141 


Frick the Man 


‘“Those who hate him most,’’ wrote the correspondent 
of the New York Wor tp, his severest critic, “‘admire 
the nerve and stamina of this man of steel whom nothing 
seems to be able to move. He looked a little thinner and 
paler than before he was shot but the change was not so 
marked as had been expected. There is a mark on his 
left ear where a bullet passed through it and behind the 
eat isa hole stuffed with cotton in which the bullet buried 
itself. He was particularly interested in the hole in the 
ceiling made by the bullet when Mr. Leishman knocked 
up Berkman’s arm and which, but for that act, would 
have ended his own career. But he was not worried when 
he was attacked nor while lying in his home during those 
terribly hot days when his recovery was anything but cer- 
tain,and today, when he returned to work after thirteen 
days, he seemed just the same as ever. There was no body- 
guard. Mr. Frick does not like bodyguards. When he 
saw the detective who had been watching the Company s 
offices ever since the shooting he frowned and the detec- 
tive was sent downstairs, where he remained as long as 
the Chairman was in the building.”’ 

“Tf an honest American,’’ he remarked to the Times 
reporter, ‘‘cannot live in his own home without being 
surrounded by a bodyguard, it is time to quit.’ 

While he was in his office the Wortp correspondent 
asked how he was feeling. 

‘Very well, indeed, thank you,”’ answered Mr. Frick. 
‘Tam nearly well, and in very good trim for work. I had 
too much to do to stay away from the office any longer 
and I am glad to get back again. I am going right along 

142 


AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE 


Attempted Assassination 


now attending to my affairs. Fortunately there is noth- 
ing behind, for during my absence the work has been done 
most satisfactorily by the officials and clerks. I could not 
ask any better management of this trouble than that of 
my assistants, and the results thus far are all that could 
be wished for. There have been many grave situations 
and complications and all of them have been successfully 
met. The outlook is most bright. I could not ask for any- 
thing better.’’ 

He lunched with the managers of the Company’s vari- 
ous plants and left for home on a street-car unattended 
shortly after three o’clock. Half a dozen or more police- 
men were patrolling the block and at the gate he met 
Superintendent O'Mara and protested somewhat vehe- 
mently. The Chief replied that he had stationed his men 
upon his own notion that their presence would contrib- 
ute to Mrs. Frick’s peace of mind and possibly hasten 
her recovery. 

“Very well,’’ was the reply, “‘come in and we will find 
out.”’ 

While the Chief waited in the hall Mr. Frick went up- 
stairs and returning in a few moments said to him: 

“My wife asks me to thank you most kindly for your 
thoughtfulness but earnestly requests that you take the 
men away; she fears that their being here all the time 
might make the servants nervous.’ 

The Chief laughed and complied, and thereafter Mr. 
Frick made his trips daily to and from his office alone on 
open street-cars at fixed hours without paying the slight- 
est heed to the other passengers. 

143 


Frick the Man 


Berkman meanwhile, having grievously injured the 
cause of the workmen whom, wholly without their con- 
sent or knowledge, he had meant to serve, remained in 
jail until the autumn when he was tried, convicted and 
sentenced to one year in the workhouse for carrying con- 
cealed weapons, and twenty-one years in the penitentiary 
for assault with intent to kill. At the expiration of twelve 
yeats, proposals to obtain commutation of his sentence 
were strongly urged and no less earnestly opposed by 
thousands of persons actuated by contrary motives, and 
both parties solicited Mr. Frick’s support, which he de- 
clined to accord to either the one or the other upon the 
familiar ground based, so far as he was concerned, upon 
his own tenet to the effect that, once the law was in- 
voked in any matter, no species of influence should be 
brought to bear upon the courts in their dispensation 
of justice. | | 

The advocates of clemency finally won in 1905, and 
Berkman was released after thirteen years of imprison- 
ment. Replying to a famous detective agency's proposi- 
tion to furnish adequate safeguards against fateful pos- 
sibilities, a secretary wrote: | 


Dear Sir:— New York City, April 14th, 1905. 


Mr. Frick directs me to say, in reply to yours of the twelfth, 
that he is not at all interested in Berkman or in any of his class and 
has no fear whatever. All newspaper reports regarding arrange- 
ments made by him to keep track of Berkman, or anyone in con- 
nection with him, are unfounded. 


Neither then nor thereafter did Mr. Frick take or per- 
mit anyone else to take the slightest precautions respect- 
ing his personal safety. When news of his death on 

144 


Attempted Assassination 


December 2nd, 1919, reached the unrepentant anarchist, 
he remarked with brutal cynicism: ‘‘Well anyhow he 
left the country before I did.”’ 

At a later hour of the very same day, by an odd co- 
incidence, Berkman, along with Emma Goldman, was 
deported by the United States Government. 


145 


XI 
Politics 


HAT politics should play a large part in the 

Homestead controversy was inevitable. The 

two leading candidates for President, Mr. Har- 

rison, Republican, and Mr. Cleveland, Demo- 
crat, each standing for a second term, were unexception- 
ableand well matched in ability,characterand experience. 
Of the two Mr. Cleveland possessed the stronger personal 
appeal but had won his election over Mr. Blaine in 1884 
upon an issue of personal integrity by the narrowest con- 
ceivable margin, only to be beaten by Mr. Harrison in 
1888 by a substantial majority. 

As between the two organizations, the Republican party 
seemed to havedemonstrated superior capacity toconduct 
a government successfully along constructive lines. The 
first Democratic administration since that which preceded 
the Civil War had proved unsatisfactory, lacking both 
definiteness of purpose and cohesion in action, ‘a thing of 
shreds and patches”’ ill fitted to establish and maintain 
prosperous conditions throughout the country. The party 
in national convention had disregarded its conservative 
candidate’s wishes and had forced an issue, not between 
excessive and moderate tariff rates, but between Protec- 
tion and the closest feasible approach to Free Trade as 
fundamental principles,—a far cry from the mere resent- 

146 


Politics 


ment at the McKinley Bill which had overwhelmed the 
Republicans in the Congressional elections two years pre- 
viously. Despitethe apparent significance of that stinging 
rebuke in 1890, the country seemed likely to swing back 
to the Republican policy in 1892 unless some extraneous 
question should alienatea largeblock of normal partisans. 

Upon the main issue Capital and Labor engaged in in- 
dustrial pursuits were as one for mutual benefits derived 
from the protective system of which the great steel-manu- 
facturing State of Pennsylvania was the citadel. But any 
change, however essential, fair and desirable, in the pro- 
portions of legalized gains shared by the beneficiaries in 
a time of marked prosperity could not fail to exasperate 
the class affected adversely. In the Homestead instance 
Labor seemed to be thesufferer, and workingmen through- 
out the country, disinclined to consider the merits of the 
case, wete easily aroused to consciousness of injury, and 
large numbers of consumers, though still distrustful of 
Free Trade, began to question the soundness of Protection. 

This gave rise to a situation most serviceable to the 
clever organizers, headed by Mr. Powderly, then engaged 
in an endeavor to create trades unions upon a vast scale, 
and they were quick totake advantage of it. Individually, 
probably a majority of the workingmen felt their natural 
affiliation to be with the Democratic “‘party of the 
masses,’ but the leaders preferred to deal with the Repub- 
lican “‘party of privilege’ as the more capable and better 
equipped for trading purposes. 

One of the perplexing problems which confronted the 
Republican management at the outset had arisen from 

147 


Frick the Man 


the strained relations existing between the New Yorx 
Tripung, the chief Republican organ, and the powerful 
Typographical Union No.6. The Trisunz had been main- 
tained as a non-union establishment for nearly fifteen 
years but in 1890 negotiations had been begun with a 
view to unionizing the office and were approaching a 
probable settlement when the Republican Convention 
nominated Mr. Whitelaw Reid for Vice-President. In 
point of fact an adjustment would already have been 
reached but for the circumstance that Mr. Reid was sety- 
ing as Minister to France and unable to give the matter 
his personal attention. 

Having returned from France, however, he was about 
to resume parleys when, quite unexpectedly and with- 
out expectation or desire on his own part, he was nomi- 
nated as the Republican candidate in place of Vice-Presi- 
dent Levi P. Morton. The conversations which had al- 
ready begun between Mr. Reid and the officers of the 
Union were quietly continued without regard to his can- 
didacy and a settlement satisfactory to both parties was 
reached without difficulty. 

Mr. Reid's attitude, indeed, had been so friendly and 
considerate that, when Mr. Hugh O'Donnell, the head 
of the Amalgamated Association in Pittsburgh, realized 
that Mr. Frick was practically certain to win the contest, 
he appealed to Mr. Reid to intercede with Mr. Carnegie 
to propose a settlement upon his own terms, sepia ie 
only upon recognition of the Union. 

Mr. Reid thereupon, after having communicated his 
purpose to Secretary of State Foster for the information 

148 


Politics 


doubtless of President Harrison, addressed the follow- 
ing cypher communication, through Mr. John C. New, 
Consul-General in London to Mr. Carnegie in Scotland: 


Have received appeal from Hugh O’Donnell, for aid with you 
in reaching settlement Homestead difficulty. He says he does not 
ask in any political interest, or in that of organized Labor; but 
solely for the men, women and little children making up their dis- 
tressed community; and he makes appeal to me because he thinks 
me, in consequence of our personal relations, in position to render 
efficient aid. 

He believes you will be able to start your mills, but that the 
trouble will then have only begun. He thinks it to nobody’s in- 
terest, either yours, theirs or the public’s, that such a bitter war- 
fare should be inaugurated and that you can well afford the only 
concession he asks. 

He assures me that if your people will merely consent to reopen 
a conference with their representatives, thus recognizing their or- 
ganization, they will waive every other thing in dispute, and sub- 
mit to whatever you think it right to require, whether as to scale 
or wages or hours or anything else; and do all in their power to re- 
establish harmonious relations. 

These assurances have been given to me in writing, over his 
signature, and have been repeated and emphasized in conversation, 
in presence of witnesses, during the two days’ visit he has made 
to New York for this purpose. 

I cannot rest under such an appeal, in a matter which has al- 
ready cost many lives and threatens yet more bloodshed and mis- 
ery, without transmitting his message direct to you; and without 
begging you to weigh it most carefully before deciding, for so 
small a reason as the objection to continued recognition of their 
organization, which you have heretofore recognized, to prolong 
this distressing and bloody strife which may spread so widely. 


Mr. Reid received the following reply from Mr. New: 


Proposition heartily approved here. Send copy of same to Frick 
and have Elkins and Wanamaker see him at once. Utmost im- 
portance. 


149 


Frick the Man 


Simultaneously Mr. JohnE. Milholland, acting forMr. 
Reid, by request of the Republican National Commit- 
tee, arrived in Pittsburgh on July 30th and sought an 
interview with Mr. Frick at his house with a letter of 
introduction from Mr. Reid. Immediately following this 
conversation Mr. Milholland made the following re- 
port to Mr. Reid who forwarded it promptly to Mr. 
Harrison: | 


Mr. Frick was lying in bed when I called, his face and head 
swathed in bandages. He seemed, however, to be in a fairly vigor- 
ous condition and displayed considerable excitement when we 
opened the conversation. I had presented your letter of introduc- 
tion, and he seemed to know all about my mission. I discovered 
later in the conversation that he had received some cablegrams 
from the other side informing him that somebody from you would 
call within a few days. 

I briefly laid the correspondence in the case before him, that is 
to say, Mr. O’Donnell’s letter, your despatch to Mr. Carnegie and 
Consul-General New’s cablegram in reply saying that Mr. Car- 
negie approved the proposition and recommending that it be im- 
mediately laid before Mr. Frick. 

I told Mr. Frick that Mr. Reid had cabled to Mr. Carnegie be- 


_ cause he found it impossible to come in contact with him, Mr. 


Frick. He looked surprised and asked what I meant. I told him 
then of my visit to Mr. Schoonmaker, the New York representa- 
tive of the firm. I told him that we had spent three days in en- 
deavoring to get from Mr. Schoonmaker Mr. Carnegie’s address 
or the use of the code. He told me that he had intended to trans- 
mit the message through Mr. Frick and also that our enquiries for 
Mr. Carnegie would have been the means of bringing us into re- 
lation with Mr. Frick. I further stated that finally Mr. Schoon- 
maker informed me after holding telephone communication with 
the Pittsburgh office, that is, with Mr. Frick, that they did not 
have Mr. Carnegie’s address and they did not have the code there. 
There was of course but one interpretation to be placed upon such 
a teply, namely, that Mr. Frick did not care to meet Mr. Reid and © 


150 


Politics 


was evidently bent upon preventing any intercourse between him 
and Mr. Carnegie. 

At this point, Mr. Frick declared emphatically that he would 
never consent to settle the difficulties if President Harrison himself 
should personally request him to do so. Notwithstanding the fact 
that he was a Republican and a warm friend and admirer of the 
President, the whole Cabinet, the whole leadership of the party 
might demand it but he would not yield. He was going to fight 
the strike out on the lines that he had laid down. I remarked, ‘“‘If 
it takes all summer?’’ ““Yes,’” he said, “‘if it takes all summer and 
all winter, and all next summer and all next winter. Yes, even my 
life itself. I will fight this thing to the bitter end. I will never 
recognize the Union, never, never!’’ He was considerably wrought 
up at this point, and noticing the despatch that I held in myhand, 
added *‘It makes no difference to me what Mr. Carnegie has said 
to General New or to anybody else. I won't settle this strike even 
if he should order me peremptorily to do so. If he interferes every 
manager that he has will resign and of course I will get out of the 
concern. But I do not think he will interfere.”’ 

Then he talked for some time on the favorable outlook for the 
situation from the Company’s point of view. He believed that 
what he was doing was really in the true interests of the men 
themselves. The Amalgamated Association, he said, was one of 
the most tyrannous bodies on the face of the earth. He had put up 
with it as long as he could and proposed to stand it no longer. 

Mr. Frick detailed some of his unpleasant experiences with the 
Association. I told him that I could fully appreciate the annoyance 
to which he had been subjected, as I knew something about trades- 
unions, but that it had not been the purpose of those who had 
interested themselves with a view to effecting a settlement to in- 
quire into the merits of the case, or the right or wrong of it. A 
situation existed. It was of the most deplorable character. The 
practical question was, Could anything be done to bring about a 
settlement that would be satisfactory to both sides? It was simply 
with that end in view and only that end, that Mr. Reid had inter- 
ested himself to the extent of transmitting O’Donnell’s message 
to Mr. Carnegie. He had no sympathy with the lawlessness; he 
had no disposition to champion the cause of the strikers. His sole 
object was to bring about peace if it were possible to do so. His 


ISI 


Frick the Man 


position in the matter, however, was so clearly defined in the tele- 
gram that it was unnecessary to dwell further upon it. 

Mr. Frick, who by this time had seemed to take a less hostile 
view of the matter said that it was impossible to bring about peace 
by any way that involved a recognition of the Union. That could 
not be done, and there was no use discussing it. This position was 
unalterably fixed. He seemed to think that it was just as well to 
keep the matter of my visit a secret. I told him that I had no in- 
tention of giving it publicity and while I could not speak for those 
whom I represented, yet I thought it would be perhaps best all 
round to say nothing of the matter at least for the present. Before 
leaving, however, I made it perfectly clear that I had not bound 
anyone to maintain secrecy. 

I believe I have here stated the main points touched upon in the 
hour or three-quarters of an hour’s conversation we had; there was 
some incidental conversation, but I do not think any important 
point touched upon has escaped me. 


The first intimation of what was going on had reached 
Mr. Frick in cablegrams from Mr. Carnegie dated July 
28th and July 29th reading as follows: 


Rannoch, July 28th, 1892. 

We have telegram from Tribune Reid through high official Lon- 

don Amalgamated Association reference Homestead Steel Works. 

The proposition is worthy of consideration. Replied “nothing can 

be done. Send H. C. Frick document.’ You must decide without 
delay. Amalgamated Association evidently distressed. 


Rannoch, July 29th, 1892. 

After due consideration we have concluded Tribune too old. 

Probably the proposition is not worthy of consideration. Useful 

showing distress of Amalgamated Association. Use your own dis- 

cretion about terms and starting. George Lauder, Henry Phipps, 
Jr., Andrew Carnegie solid. H. C. Frick forever! 


The perplexing difference in Mr. Carnegie’s attitude — 
as revealed by his direct cablegram to Mr. Frick and as 
transmitted by Mr. New was not mentioned to Mr. Mil- 


152 


Politics 


holland; nor was the incident recounted to Mr. Carnegie 
until August 23rd, when Mr. Frick confessed apologeti- 
cally that in the stress of business he had neglected to 
write of it, and continued: 


I told Mr. Milholland that I did not think the matter had been 
placed before you correctly or you never would have entertained, 
certainly not heartily approved, any proposition to adjust matters 
with the Amalgamated Association, and that I was surprised that 
you had not availed yourself of the opportunity offered to tell Mr. 
Reid and Mr. O'Donnell emphatically that you did not propose 
then, nor at any time in the future, to urge your partners here to 
treat with law-breakers and assassins. I went over the situation 
very fully with him at the time, and am satisfied convinced him 
that it was most unreasonable for Mr. Reid to expect us to treat 
with the Amalgamated Association. 

He was very solicitous that the fact of his having called should 
be considered confidential. I assured him that the matter would go 
no further than my associates. 

From information received from time to time since then, I am 
inclined to the opinion that Reid has been keeping O’Donnell and 
his gang on the string, and leading them to believe he was still 
endeavoring to bring about a settlement through you. It is too 
late now, however, for you to say or do anything in the matter. 

As you know, I have always feared that the consolidation of 
our various companies would give us some trouble with labor 
where the Amalgamated Association was in charge, and I know 
that you could not have had any other idea but that sooner or 
later we would have to run non-union at all the works or union 
at all the works, and when the issue was once made, viewing it 
from any standpoint that you might, we could not afford to do 
otherwise than fight it through to the end, without regard to cost 
or time. 


No more was heard of the matter until, while his ac- 
count of the interview was on its way to Scotland, Mr. 
Frick received word that Secretary of War Elkins and 
Postmaster-General Wanamaker wished to make an ap- 

153 


Frick the Man 


pointment for an interview with him upon a subject of 
great urgency. Whereupon he cabled Mr. Carnegie on 
August 26th: 


The fact that in your communication with New you advised 
‘having either Wanamaker or Elkins see me’’ and the fact that 
they are both now wanting to see me leads to the conclusion that 
Whitelaw Reid is holding out to Laugh’s(O’Donnell’s) representa- 
tive that some arrangement can yet be made. Would advise cabling 
Reid at once most emphatically to the contrary and that we will 
never consent to any compromise of any kind at Plunge (Home- 
stead) and tell him to so notify Laugh’s representative immediately 
as I know they think you will interfere sooner or later in their 
favor. 


Mr. Carnegie replied promptly: 

Wired Reid as follows: Tell party no compromise possible. Over 
two thousand men working Homestead. Firm’s honor pledged 
never to dismiss them. Every one of the twenty-three owners would 
sink works rather than dismiss one man. Party only bringing thou- 


sands to misery by allowing places taken by strangers after fight 
is lost. 


‘“Frankly,’’ wrote Mr. Frick with respect to this, “I 
do not think you sent the proper message to Reid. You 
should have said emphatically, in my opinion, that we 
did not propose hereafter, under any circumstances, to 
deal with the Amalgamated Association. Saying to him 
the number of men we had at work, and giving thatasa 
reason really why we would make no compromise would, 
it seems to me, indicate that if we had not so many new 
men at work acompromise might be possible. Reid should 
have been given to understand that we not only would 
not compromise, but would never have any dealings 
with the Amalgamated Association. This is the way it 
strikes me.’’ 

154 


Politics 


Mr. Carnegie countered cleverly and good-naturedly 
on September 9th: 


My dear Mr. Frick: 

Yours received. I thought I had sent a rattling message to Reid, 
its form is yours and not mine. Your cable read: ‘‘Wire Reid we 
will never consent to any compromise of any kind,’’—and these 
were the words I began with, and kept to it. To travel beyond 
them might not have suited your book. 

You have no idea how much in the dark one is up here among 
the moors, twenty-three miles from a railway station, and a wrong 
word might easily be said, since I am so ignorant of conditions, 
and just what you wished to hit at the time and how to hit it.— 
Having wired your very words, I added the strongest proof why 
compromise was impossible, for to my mind, the firm’s honor 
being pledged in that public notice renders any re-instatement of 
the Union simply impossible. 

Had I known then that Mr. Reid had, or was going to change 
his office from a Non-union to a Union office, I could not have been 
so cruel as to put the matter in the way I did. It must have stung 
him hard. I ask for a clean dismissal on the count that the message 
to him was not what you “‘had aright to expect,’’ being your own 
my boy. 

r - Yours sincerely, 
A.C. 


No further appeals from the Republican leaders to 
‘recognize the Union’’ were received by either of the 
partners. That nevertheless Mr. Frick had reason to an- 
ticipate further nagging was indicated in this lugubrious 
postcript to his letter to Mr. Carnegie: 

At his request I am to meet Mr. Wanamaker on Monday night 
at Cresson. I don’t know what about but surmise it may be on this 
business. If I find it is so, I shall promptly inform Reid that he 
must cease meddling in our affairs. He had no right to do so after 


my interview with his representative. I wrote to Mr. Elkins that 
I could not see him now. 


“a5 


Frick the Man 


But Mr. Frick guessed wrong. As already noted, Mr. 
Reid had written the following letter to President Har- 


rison on August 4th: 

August 4th, 1892. 
Private 
Dear Mr. President; 

As Mr. Milholland talked with you about the Homestead busi- 
ness, you ought to know the steps taken. 

After fruitless efforts for a day or two, I at last found a method 
of sending the despatch which you saw, in cypher, through a com- 
mercial concern not likely to talk. General New transmitted 1 it at 
once and on Friday last telegraphed me as follows: 

Proposition heartily approved here. Send copy of same to 
Frick and have Elkins and Wanamaker see him at once. Ut- 
most importance. 

It seemed to me unwise to involve the Administration in any 
way in this matter without first ascertaining the probable recep- 
tion it would get; and in order to keep the matter for the time, 
within as few hands as possible, I sent the same messenger to 
Pittsburgh. You will find enclosed herewith his report of the con- 
versation. 

Seeing no opportunity for further useful action in the premises, 
I have not communicated with Messrs. Wanamaker and Elkins; 
but, if you should think otherwise, the matter is in your hands. 

* * * * * 
With high respect, 
Always faithfully yours, 
WHiTELAw Rerp. 


What Mr. Wanamaker really sought was a substantial 
contribution to the Republican Campaign fund—a prop- 
osition which Mr. Frick found, upon making inquiry, 
to be as distasteful to Mr. Carnegie as it was to himself. 

That some contribution should be made was agreed 
and the amount was still under discussion by correspond- 
ence when Mr. Frick was called to New York on business, 
and meeting Secretary Elkins, settled the matter by hand- 

156 


Politics 


ing him a check drawn to the order of Thomas Dolan, 
for $25,000, the sum he had suggested in lieu of $50,000 
which Mr. Wanamaker had intimated had been promised 
by Mr. Carnegie, whose real view he found in a letter 
awaiting him upon his arrival home, to the effect that 
not more than $10,000 should be contributed. 

““Mr. Elkins told me,’’ wrote Mr. Frick on October 
31st, ‘that Quay, Carter, Dolan and Clarkson felt very 
confident, to which I said I thought it a waste of money, 
_ but we wanted to do our duty and I hoped Mr. Harrison 
would be elected.’’ 

But Mr. Frick’s wish was smothered by his expecta- 
tion. Mr.Cleveland was elected and bore into power with 
himself Democratic majorities in both Houses of Con- 
gress. Letters dated November 9th crossed. 

“Tam very sorry for President Harrison,’’ wrote Mr. 
Frick, ‘‘but I cannot see that our interests are going to 
be affected one way or the other by the change in ad- 
ministration.’’ 

‘Cleveland! Landslide!’’ replied Mr. Carnegie. ‘‘Well 
we have nothing to fear and perhaps it is best. People 
will now think the Protected Manfrs. will be attended to 
and quit agitating. Cleveland is pretty good fellow. Off 
for Venice tomortow.”’ 

*T fear,’” he wrote a week later from Venice, ‘‘that 
Homestead did much to elect Cleveland—very sorry— 
but no use getting scared.” 

On March 20th, 1893, following the inauguration of 
Mr. Cleveland, Mr. Carnegie addressed the following 
letter to Mr. Reid: 

157 


Frick the Man 


5 West Fifty-first Street 
Private New York, March 20th, 1893. 


My dear Mr. Reid: 

I called upon you upon my return from Pittsburgh but found 
your house closed. Supposing you would soon return I waited, but 
learning from the woman at Mr. Mills’ house, (where I called to 
ask about you), that you might not be here until May I feel that 
it is too long to wait to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks for 
the noble effort you made to settle that deplorable Homestead 
blunder. I assure you my partners Messrs. Phipps & Lauder whom 
I had summoned to Scotland to confer with me, agree with me in 
feeling ourselves under a debt of gratitude to you. We supposed 
the matter would be promptly settled, as a consequence of your 
action. 

I never suspected that the seven hundred men reported as at 
work were new men. I rested believing them to be our former em- 
ployés. Between ourselves, no manufacturer is wise who attempts 
to employ new men. My partners thought the three thousand old 
men would keep their promise to work, and therefore opened the 
works for them. The guards were intended only to protect them. 
The workmen were terrorized and dare not appear. Here was the 
turning point. The works should then have been closed and the 
firm should have kept on negotiating, but never starting until 
matters were right. 

For twenty-six years I ran all our various works and never had 
but one labor stoppage. I told the Committee they were right in 
saying ‘‘I would never fight but they had to learn one thing I could 
beat any Committee ever formed, sitting down, the works would 
start when they voted to ask me to start them.’’ They voted soon 
enough—but I only started to express myself your debtor and to 
assure you that all three of the principal owners are very grateful 
to you. 

This has been the hardest trial I ever had to endure (save when 
the hand of death has come)—I have been in misery since July, but 
am reconciled somewhat since I have visited Homestead and gone 
through all the works and shaken hands with the chief men. 

No one knows the virtues, the noble traits of the true working 
man who has not lived with them as I have and there’s one con- 


158 


Politics 


solation in all my sorrow, Not one of them but said, Ah, Mr. Car- 
negie if you had only been here it never would have happened. 

To add to my cup I know the mistake injured my friends, Presi- 
dent Harrison and yourself, but I was powerless—after the riot 
and with Mr. Frick supposed to be dying no step could be taken 
that would not have complicated matters still more. 

I was all ready to return by the first steamer, but as my appear- 
ance on the scene would have implied Mr. Frick’s virtual depo- 
sition and he had begged me not to do this, I remained abroad. 
Excuse this long epistle. My kindest regards to Mrs. Reid and Mr. 
Mills and renewed thanks to you believe me always 

Your friend 
ANDREW CARNEGIE. 


Mr. Frick said nothing. When the election was over 
he returned to business without apologizing to any- 
body for anything that he had done. 


159 


XII 
“The Laird” and “The Man” 


HE motives and the acts of both Mr. Carnegie 

and Mr. Frick were misunderstood or misrepre- 

sented from the beginning of the struggle at 

Homestead. One widespread impression respect- 
ing the conduct of the former was that he forsook the 
workmen whose friendship he had sedulously cultivated 
and “‘ran away to Scotland”’ in the nick of time to avoid 
facing the situation. This accusation, insofar at any rate 
as it bore upon the date of his leaving the country, had 
no foundation in fact. He sailed in April as usual, nearly 
three months before the expiration of the agreement, in 
pursuance of a routine which he had followed for years; 
and wisely, since postponement would have served only 
to evince apprehension which he did not feel, and to en- 
courage the labor leaders in inciting disaffection among 
the men. 

His withdrawal from directive responsibility, even 
from nominal membership of the Board, was attribut- 
able undoubtedly to his sincere desire to shift the entire 
executive and financial burden to the shoulders of Tue 
Man whom at last he believed he had found, and thus 
leave himself free to work at philosophy, experiment 
in philanthropy, indulge his fads and play betimes at 
publicity. 

160 


AT THE AGE OF THIRTY 


“The Laird” and “The Man” 


The possibility of serious disturbance in one of many 
working organizations was incidental rather than unusual 
and in no sense a controlling influence over his activities. 

In point of fact neither Mr. Carnegie nor Mr. Frick fore- 
saw anything approaching in magnitudeand consequences 
the terrific hurricane that was to follow; less thanamonth 
before the outbreak, they were planning a long conference 
in Scotland; but, asa practical matter, the two hadagreed 
that whatever might arise in the form of strikes or lock- 
- outs, either at Homestead or elsewhere, could be handled 
most effectively by the Chairman alone, without inter- 
ference by the chief or any other stockholder,—and so 
it was atranged to the satisfaction of both, the oneassum- 
ing full responsibility and the other, content to aid by 
suggestion, pledging unqualified support of whatever de- 
cision might be reached by the management. 

Although this understanding was observed faithfully, 
in most trying circumstances, throughout the entire con- 
test, both wereaware long before trouble began that their 
minds were not in accord with respect to either general 
policy, or specific methods. Mr. Frick stood for squarely 
upholding what he considered the absolute right of a 
corporation, no less than of an individual, to conduct 
its business as it might see fit. It might or might not 
deal with union officials as authorized representatives of 
masses of workmen, but it should not be compelled to 
do either through complicity or negligence on the part 
of the State, whose sole duty was to guarantee and to 
secute, by force if necessary, all ‘‘equal privileges’ ac- 
corded by basic law to both Capital and Labor. 

161 


Frick the Man 


Mr. Carnegie held contrary views acclaimed by some 
as ‘‘advanced”’ or ‘‘progressive’’ and condemned by othets 
as ‘‘radical’’ or ‘‘socialistic.’’ To Labor he was accus- 
tomed to accord rights that were ‘‘natural,’’ equivalent 
to those depicted by Jefferson in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence as ‘‘endowed by their Creator,’’ thus clearly 
superseding rights of Capital derived from mere mundane 
authority. This doctrine appealed strongly, on human- 
itarian grounds, to those who perceived in its pronounce- 
ment by a leading employer evidence of great breadth 
and magnanimity, but it made slight impression upon 
dialectical minds for the simple reason that it applied 
solely to organized Labor in its unending struggle with 
Capital and barred from consideration the vastly greater 
number of individuals who were thus left out in the cold 
without recourse of any kind. But Mr. Carnegie, heed- 
less of his own disregard not only of logic but of the very 
sympathy which he was striving to manifest for the toil- 
ers, did not hesitate to carry his theory to its irresistible 
conclusion with a dictum approximating an Eleventh 
Commandment to the effect that— 

‘Thou shalt not take thy neighbor’s job.”’ 

Pronouncing this ‘‘the unwritten law of the best work- 
men,’’ Mr. Carnegie bestowed upon it his benediction 
as being equally desirable from the standpoint of the best 
employers. To the logical mind of Mr. Frick it spelt con- 
clusively nothing less than abdication by responsible 
managers of control of property from whose owners they 
had accepted virtual trusteeship. A sharper disagreement 
‘‘in principle’ could hardly be imagined. 

162 


“The Laird” and “The Man” 


And yet the difference in application was even more 
vivid. Mr. Carnegie had already, ina letter to Mr. Frick, 
outlined the method which he reasoned would coincide 
with his theory, in these words: 


My idea of beating in a dispute with men is always to shut down 
and suffer; let them decide by vote when they desire to go to work 
—say kindly *‘All right, Gentlemen let’s hear from you, no quar- 
rel, not the least in the world, until a majority vote (secret ballot) 
to go to work—have a good time—when a majority vote to start, 
start it is.’’ I am satisfied that the Employer or Firm who gets the 
reputation of adhering to that will never have a prolonged stop- 
page, or much ill feeling. AC 


This was a private communication from controlling 
owner to responsible manager and, from its permanent 
abiding place in the office safe, could cause no embarrass- 
ment; but unfortunately the like could not be said of a 
sweeping generalization along the same line made pub- 
lic some time before. 

“My idea,’’ Mr. Carnegie then wrote, ‘‘is that the 
Company should be known as determined to let the men 
at any works stop work; that it will confer freely with 
them and wait patiently until they decide to return to 
work, never thinking of trying new men—never.”’ 

Later he added: ‘‘Workmen can always be relied upon 
to resent the employment of new men. Who can blame 
them?”’ 

Taken in conjunction with ‘‘Thou shalt not seek thy 
neighbor’s job,” this naturally induced the labor lead- 
ers to believe that they might count upon the moral sup- 
port and dominant influence of Mr. Carnegie in offsetting 
at least, and probably overwhelming, the stern deter- 

163 


Frick the Man 


mination of the man whom they most feared as an enemy 
of labor organization. 

This deduction was natural but erroneous. Mr. Frick 
felt that he had ample reason to distrust a union which, 
while holding that a company was bound by its con- 
tracts, had persistently repudiated its own agreements, 
but he was so eager to carry on peaceably the great under- 
takings which he had in mind that he not only welcomed 
but sought a continuance of the existing arrangement 
with the Amalgamated Association upon a wage scale 
which he and the labor leaders tacitly admitted to be 
fair and reasonable, even going so far as to offer at the 
last conference to split the immaterial difference of only 
two dollars per ton in the fixed minimum. 

Nevertheless, in the face of this proposal, involving 
of course the ‘‘recognition’’ soardently desired, the labor 
negotiators insisted that he was deliberately using a tri- 
fling disparity as a pretext for completely smashing the 
union, and a large portion of the popular Press denounced 
him bitterly upon this false assumption. The public mis- 
apprehension of Mr. Carnegie’s purpose in going abroad 
was trivial by contrast with this misrepresentation of 
Mr. Frick’s true attitude. 

In point of fact, unrevealed for many years, it was 
not Mr. Frick but Mr. Carnegie who wanted to make 
open war on the union from the very beginning, and 
it was not Mr. Carnegie but Mr. Frick who vetoed the 
proposal. 

Shortly before sailing in April, following several con- 
ferences in New York, Mr. Carnegie embodied his idea 

164 


“The Laird” and “The Man” 


in a manifesto, or ‘‘ultimatum,’’ as subsequently he de- 
scribed it, to be posted at a suitable moment, reading as 
follows: 
NOTICE 
TO EMPLOYEES AT HOMESTEAD WORKS. 


These Works have been consolidated with the Edgar Thomson 
and Duquesne and other mills, there has been forced upon this 
Firm the question Whether its Works are to be run ‘Union’ or 
‘Non-Union.’ As the vast majority of our employees are Non- 
Union, the Firm has decided that the minority must give place to 
the majority. These works therefore, will be necessarily Non-Union 
after the expiration of the present agreement. 

This does not imply that the men will make lower wages. On 
the contrary, most of the men at Edgar Thomson and Duquesne 
Works, both Non-Union, have made and are making higher wages 
than those at Homestead, which has hitherto been Union. 

* * * * * 

This action is not taken in any spirit of hostility to labor organ- 
izations, but every man will see that the frm cannot run Union 
and Non-Union. It must be either one or the other. 


Mr. Frick neither accepted nor rejected this plan; he 
simply pigeon-holed the document, and abided events, 
hoping that a sober second-thought would avert the ne- 
cessity of engaging in altercation and possibly forcing 
an issue of control at a most inopportune moment. This 
policy quickly justified itself. Immediately upon his ar- 
rival at Coworth Park, Sunningdale, England, Mr. Car- 
negie was joined by two of his partners, Mr. Phipps 
and Mr. Lauder, his cousin, and on May 4th addressed 
to Mr. Frick a long communication which he labelled 
‘a joint production,”’ in the course of which he said: 

You remember I gave you a type-written slip which I suggested 


you might have to use. It is probable that you will. But I hope 
you will make this change in it: I did not get it quite right, 


165 


Frick the Man 


because I think it said that the firm had to make the decision of 
‘Union’ or ‘Non-Union.’ This I am sure, is wrong. We need not 
meet that point, and we should not. 

We simply say that consolidation having taken place, we must 
introduce the same system in our works; we do not care whether 
a man belongs to as many Unions or organizations as he chooses, 


but he must conform to the system in our other works. 
* * * * cd 


One thing we are all sure of: No contest will be entered in that 
will fail. It will be harder this time at Homestead than it would 
have been last time when we had the matter in ourown hands, asyou 
have always felt. On the other hand, your reputation will shorten 
it, so that I really do not believe it will be much of a struggle. We 
all approve of anything you do, not stopping short of approval of 
a contest. We are with you to the end. 


Mr. Frick accepted this assurance as approval of his 
determination as outlined in a letter dated April 21st, 
saying that if ‘‘a stubborn fight’’ should arise, it would 
be “‘fought to a finish without regard to cost or time.”’ 
He made no reference to the proposed ‘‘ultimatum’”’; nor 
did Mr. Carnegie on May 23rd when he wrote, ‘‘No doubt 
you will get Homestead right as you can get anything 
right with your ‘mild persistence.’ ”’ 

On July 7th, the day following the pitched battle at 
Homestead, Mr. Carnegie cabled from Pitlochry: 


Cable received. All anxiety gone since you stand firm. Never 
employ one these rioters. Let grass grow over works. Must not 
fail now. You will win easily next trial only stand firm law and 
order wish I could support you in any form. 


Two days later a correspondent of the New Yorx 
Wortp succeeded in tracing him to a secluded lodge 
in Perthshire and reported as follows: 


Asked if he had anything to say concerning the troubles at his 
mills, Mr. Carnegie replied: 


166 


“The Laird” and “The Man” 


“IT have nothing whatever to say. I have given up all active con- 
trol of the business and I do not care to interfere in any way with 
the present management’s conduct of this affair.”’ 

“But do you not still exercise a supervision of the affairs of the 
company?” 

“I have nothing whatever to say on that point, the business 
management is in the hands of those who are fully competent to 
deal with every question that may arise.”’ 

‘“Have you heard from Homestead since the riot occurred?”’ 

“I have received several cables and among them several asking 
my interference with the parties in control.”’ 

‘““But you must have some opinion in the matter that you are 
willing to express.”’ 

“No, sir. lam not willing to express any opinion. The men have 
chosen their course and I am powerless to change it. The handling 
of the case on the part of the company has my full approval and 
sanction. Further than this I have no disposition to say anything.”’ 


Immediately following the arrival of the troops the 
union leaders sought to embarrass Mr. Carnegie and to 
effect a break between the two partners by cabling this 
message: 


Kind master, tell us what you wish us to do and we shall do it 
for you. 


‘““This,’’ wrote Mr. Carnegie in his Autobiography, 
‘“‘was most touching but, alas, too late. The mischief 
was done, the works were in the hands of the Governor; 
it was too late.”’ 

Whether he meant to convey the impression that he 
might have intervened if the affecting appeal had reached 
him sooner, or simply availed himself of a plausible pre- 
text to escape from a perplexing situation is perhaps a 
question since, in lieu of a direct answer, the following 
breath of apparent relief was flashed to Mr. Frick: 

Governor’s action settles matters all right now no compromise. 


167 


Frick the Man 


‘‘Much pleased with your cable, did not doubt your 
position,’ Mr. Frick promptly responded and amplified 
by letter in these words: 

Your cable of this morning was received, and I cabled a reply. 
Never had a doubt but that you would thoroughly approve of 
every action taken in this matter when you would once be made 
acquainted with all of the facts in the case, and have felt that you 
had sufficient confidence in the management here not to form an 


opinion unfavorable to it, even with the meagre information that 
you would receive or gather from newspaper dispatches. 


Meanwhile, in the course of frequent reports, he was 
writing: 

We will lose no time in resuming operations at Homestead, but 
it shall be done with the greatest care, selecting the best men, and 


re-organizing the entire works, so that we shall not employ any 
more men than actually necessary. 


Thus quite casually and without argument, Mr. Car- 
negie’s favorite method of merely shutting down, wait- 
ing patiently for the men to return to work and “never 
thinking of trying new men—never,’’ was ignored and 
no protest was forthcoming. 

When Mr. Carnegie received news of the attempted 
assassination of Mr. Frick he cabled promptly: 

Too glad at your escape to think of anything. Never fear brave 
and dear friend my appearing upon scene as long as you ate able to 
direct matters from house and unless partners call. We know too 
well what is due to you. Am subject your orders. Louise Stella 
myself all relieved by cables just received. Be careful of yourself 
is all we ask. 3 

“I tremble yet to think of your escape, awful,’’ he 
wrote but was reassured on August 5th by a cablegram 

168 


“The Laird” and “The Man” 


reading, ‘At office feeling first-class, everything assum- 
ing good shape,’’ and replied: 

Hearty congratulations from all here, upon return to post of 
duty everything is right when you and Mrs. Frick are right every 


other consideration insignificant. You owe it to all your friends to 
be careful of yourself. 


The first rift in the lute came on September roth, when 
Mr. Frick wrote: 

Had a cable yesterday evening from Mr. Lauder (Mr. Carnegie’s 
cousin), who said he would be glad to come over if he could be of 
any use in any position whatever. Wired him not to come at pres- 
ent, and wrote him fully. There is a feeling yet that you will in 
some way interfere to settle this strike question, and Mr. Lauder’s 
coming over now would only give them further hope. There is 
nothing personal in this matter, so far as I am concerned. I am, so 
far as I know, only doing what it seems to me to be for the inter- 
ests of the owners of the property, and if we want to get the full 
benefit of all that we have gone through, there must be no devia- 
tion from the policy we have been pursuing all along. After it is 
all over, if it is thought somebody else can do better, the position 
is open for him. I have never sought responsibility, nor to my 
knowledge have I ever shirked it. 


The decisive note in this crisp utterance was unmis- 
takable. There had been no interference in the past; there 
should be none in the present nor in the future; Mr. 
Lauder was recognized universally as Mr. Carnegie’s 
personal representative; his appearance upon the scene, 
suggested undoubtedly by his Chief, would be hailed as 
a signal that the controlling owner was dissatisfied with 
the situation and was feeling his way toward taking a 
hand, as he had done on previous occasions; its immedi- 
ate effect would be strengthening of the union and dis- 
couragement of the new men; the result might, and quite 

169 


Frick the Man 


likely would, be defeat and disaster; Mr. Lauder ought 
not, and would not be permitted, to come. 

When a precisely similar crisis arose during the coke 
strike Mr. Frick, refusing to carry out instructions which 
he considered ruinous, had conceded the right of majority 
stockholders to dictate a policy and had withdrawn from 
the management. His attitude had undergone no change. 
Owners held, and should be empowered to exercise, full 
control of their properties. Again he would retire volun- 
tarily if his administration should prove unsatisfactory 
’—a significant phrase which, strip- 
ping for an instant the velvet glove, revealed the hand of 
steel. 

Whatever construction hemay have put upon this plain 
intimation and whatever may have been his emotions, 
Mr. Carnegie, admittedly ill and obviously despondent, 
ignored it for the moment, but at the expiration of a 
week he wrote at great length, expressing his regret that 
Mr. Frick had misinterpreted “‘Mr. Lauder’s volunteer- 
ing to go to you,”’ hoping that he had not alienated 
him by making ‘‘a curt reply,’’ quoting Mr. Phipps as 
remarking that he was ‘‘too touchy’’ and arguing with 
great earnestness that ‘‘the more partners there are in 
the works the better’’ as showing that the firm was “‘a 
unit and bound to win.”’ 

Paying no attention to the general dissertation, Mr. 
Frick answered a specific question somewhat laconically 
in these words: 


“after it is all over, 


It seems to me that you would enjoy a trip in Italy much more 
if you felt well satisfied with the way everything was running at 


170 


“The Laird” and “The Man” 


home, and that you would be better satisfied with the situation 
here if you were to return in November, as you have counted on. 
You will find that things are not as bad in many respects as you 
imagine them to be. Curry and Leishman both think it would be 
better that you should postpone your return until next spring, and 
they have felt more strongly all the time than I have that it would 
be a mistake for either yourself, Mr. Phipps or Mr. Lauder to re- 
turn until this matter is over. I merely say this to show that the 
decision reached in regard to Mr. Lauder was not made on my own 
responsibility, although I freely concur in it. 


Meanwhile, having received Mr. Frick’s response to 
_ Mr. Lauder, setting forth his reasons for declining the 
latter's proffer of aid, Mr. Carnegie wrote: 


My dear Pard: 

H.P. and J are delighted with sone of your reply to Lauder. Altho 
we dont agree with your decision—Lauder is a partner—big word, 
inside Homestead Works, and not a small word anywhere—His 
presence there could only tell strikers the firm was a unit—not a 
personal quarrel of any one member—lIf twenty of our young part- 
ners were inside Homestead encouraging new men so much the 
better. 

This fight is too much against our Chairman—pattakes of per- 
sonal issue. It is very bad indeed for you—very and also bad for the 
interests of the firm. 

There’s another point which troubles me on your account—the 
danger that the public and hence all our men get the impression 
that it is al] Frick—Your influence for good would be permanently 
impaired—Y ou don’t deserve a bad name, but then one is sometimes 
wrongfully got—Your partners should be as much identified with 
this struggle as you—think over this counsel. It is from a very 
wise man as you know and atrue friend. A.C. 


Mr. Frick, on October 12th, summed up the situation 
in response to this peculiar epistle as follows: 


I note the counsel you give, but I cannot see wherein I can profit 
by it, or what action could be taken by me that would change 
matters in respect to that which you mention. 


171 


Frick the Man 


As you understand, the only objection to Mr. Laudet’s return- 
ing now, or when he proposed it, was the fear that it might pro- 
long the strike. For no other reason, I assure you. 

So far as the strike is concerned, you will recollect, in your 
library, before you left for Europe, during my next to the last visit 
with you, when you gave me a memorandum expressing your views 
about the labor situation at Homestead, I told you then that I did 
not like to think of the labor situation at Homestead, etc., etc. If 
we had adopted the policy of sitting down and waiting, we would 
have still been sitting, waiting, and the fight would yet have to be 
made, and then we would have been accused of trying to starve 
our men into submission. This is the way I think. 

Of course I may be wrong, and if we had eventually been com- 
pelled to make a deal with the Amalgamated Association just 
think what effect that would have had on Edgar Thomson and 
Duquesne, and when this victory is won it will not take very long 
to show our men at Homestead how much better it is to deal with 
us direct, and anything we do for them will not be credited to the 
Amalgamated Association, or any other Association, but to the 
one that we are most deeply interested in. 


Mr. Carnegie, having decided to follow his inclination 
and seek diversion in Italy, proceeded by easy stages to 
Milan, Venice and Florence, where two ia ge from 
Pittsburgh awaited his arrival: 

Nov. 18.—Victory!—Earty (H.C.F.). 

Nov. 21.—Strike officially declared off yesterday. Our victory 
is now complete and most gratifying. Do not think we will ever 
have any serious labor trouble again, and should now soon have 
Homestead and all the works formerly managed by Carnegie, Phipps 
& Company, in as good shape as Edgar Thomson and Duquesne. 
Let the Amalgamated still exist and hold full sway at other people’s 
mills. That is no concern of ours. 


‘Life worth living again!’’ Mr. Carnegie replied, and 
followed with: 


Cables received—first happy morning since July—surprising how 
pretty Italia—congratulate all round—improve works—go ahead 
—clear track—tariff not in it—shake. 


172 


“The Laird” and “The Man” 


‘Iam well,’’ he wrote from Rome, “‘and able to take 
an interest in the wonders we see,’’ and added: 


Shall see you all early after the New Year. Think I’m about ten 
years older than when with you last. Europe has rung with Home- 
stead, Homestead, until we are all sick of the name, but it is all over 
now—So once again Happy New Year to all. I wish someone would 
write me about your good self. I cannot believe you can be well. 

Ever your Pard, A.C. 


Mr. Carnegie returned home in January deeply dis- 
tressed by consciousness of the contemptuous attitude of 
_ the public toward him for what was regarded mistakenly 
as the craven part which he had played. But he did not 
flinch. Proceeding straightway to the battle-ground, he 
published a carefully prepared statement with ‘‘I did not 
come to Pittsburgh to rake up but to bury the past, of 
which I knew nothing,’ reiterating his numerous asset- 
tions that he had ‘‘retired from active business’’ for all 
time four years previously and closing with this striking 
tribute to his partner: 


And now one word about Mr. Frick. I am not mistaken in the 
man, as the future will show. Of his ability, fairness and pluck no 
one has now the slightest question. His four years’ management 
stamps him as one of the foremost managers of the world—I would 
not exchange him for any manager I know. 

People generally are still to learn of those virtues which his 
partners and friends know so well. If his health be spared I predict 
that no man who ever lived in Pittsburgh and managed business 
here wil! be better liked or more admired by his employees than 
my friend and partner Henry Clay Frick, nor do I believe any man 
will be more valuable for the city. His are the qualities that wear; 
he never disappoints; what he promises he more than fulfils. 

I hope after this statement that the public will understand that 
the officials of the Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, with Mr. 
Frick at their head, are not dependent upon me, or upon any one 


173 


Frick the Man 


in any way for their positions, and that I have neither power nor 
disposition to interfere with them in the management of the busi- 
ness. And further, that I have the most implicit faith in them, 


Many years later, it is true, Mr. Carnegie, actuated by 
motives not then existent, said and did many things dif_i- 
cult to reconcile with this unqualified encomium, but 
the fact remains that he did play the game to the finish 
and emerged from the ‘‘most terrible experience’ of his 
life unscathed save in popular repute. 

The relations of Taz Larrp and Tur Man, having thus 
miraculously survived the ordeal, remained unimpaired. 


174 


XIII 


Victory’s Cost and Gain 


ONDITIONS at Homestead and elsewhere in 
the district improved steadily, from the com- 
pany’s standpoint, during the summer months. 
The sympathetic strikes, inaugurated with 

great reluctance by union men at the Upper and Lower 
mills in Pittsburgh and by non-union men at Fort Du- 
quesne lasted only a few weeks and work was resumed by 
the men individually all along the line on a non-union 
basis. Nearly two thousand new men half filled the Home- 
stead mills in August without serious menace from the 
former employés. 

But one dastardly performance marked this period under 
the direction of Master Workman Hugh Dempsey of Dis- 
trict Assembly No. 3 of the Knights of Labor. An unac- 
countable epidemic broke out among the workmen who 
obtained their meals inside the mills and completely mys- 
tified the physicians, until, after several deaths had taken 
place, suspicions of poisoning were confirmed by helpers 
who confessed that they had been paid by Dempsey and 
an associate to put certain yellow powders into the soup 
and coffee supplied to the men. Analysis showed that 
these powders contained croton oil and arsenic varied 
with powders of antimony. 

Dempsey was attested, indicted, convicted in due time 

175 


Frick the Man 


and sentenced, with others, to seven years in the peni- 
tentiary. At the expiration of three years, besought as in 
the case of Berkman, by both advocates and opponents 
of clemency to intercede, Mr. Frick addressed the follow- 
ing communication to the Board of Pardons: 


I have been requested to write you upon the subject of the appli- 
cation of Hugh Dempsey for pardon. If the application is put upon 
the ground of clemency, it would not seem proper to protest. There 
is no desire to interfere, and indeed it would be improper to at- 
tempt to interfere with the exercise by the Board of Pardons of 
its power so long as its exercise is invoked in the name of mercy, 
but the claim of innocence and unfair trial heretofore made is so 
manifestly untrue as to call for a protest from every well-informed 
and law-abiding citizen. 

Very Respectfully yours, 
H. C, Frick, 


The cynical effrontery of the Knights of Labor in up- 
holding Dempsey and keeping his name on their rolls 
after he had been sentenced to the penitentiary contri- 
buted materially to the breakdown of the organization 
under Mr. Powderly and its supersession by the American 
Federation of Labor which was guided wisely and success- 
fully for more than forty years by Mr. Samuel Gompers. 

The troops were withdrawn gradually until October 
13th, when the last instalment departed, and immediately 
assaults upon the non-union employés were renewed 
vigorously though only in a few individual instances 
effectually. 

‘The firmness with which these strikers hold on,’’ 
Mr. Frick wrote to Mr. Carnegie on October 31st, “‘is 
surprising to every one, but I think after the election we 
will see a decided change. There is not much that I can 

176 


Victory’s Cost and Gain 


say about Homestead except that we are gradually im- 
proving. This strike, of course, will cost us a large sum 
of money but we will get it all back in the next two or 
three years, and, as you know, Homestead has never been 
well managed; always something going wrong, and a 
large amount of money has been wasted by poor manage- 
ment. The mills have never been able to turn out the 
product they should, owing to being held back by the 
Amalgamated men, but this is a chestnut, etc.”’ 

This diagnosis proved to be correct. The political cul- 
mination pulled the last prop from under the Amalga- 
mated Association and dissipated the faint lingering hopes 
of the former employés, two hundred of whom broke 
away on November 17th and were followed by large 
groups of different classes on the following day, all of 
whom were cordially greeted personally and few turned 
back by Mr. Charles M. Schwab, who had been brought 
by Mr. Frick from the Edgar Thomson works to become 
Manager of the mills. Three days later the local lodges of 
the Amalgamated Association formally abandoned the 
contest and released their members. 

The struggle had continued five months less one 
week, and had cost the company in necessary expendi- 
tures and loss of profits $2,000,000, the workmen in loss 
of wages $1,200,000 and the State for militia service 
$1,600,000,—a grand total of approximately five mil- 
lions of dollars. 

After notifying Mr. Carnegie that all expenses had been 
charged up,‘‘so that we swallowed the dose as we went 
along,’’ Mr. Frick summed up tersely: 

177 


Frick the Man 


We could never have profited much by any of our competitors 
making and winning the fight we have made. We had to teach our 
employés a lesson, and we have taught them one that they will 
never forget, but we will talk this all over when we meet. It is 
hard to estimate what blessings will flow from our recent complete 
victory, both to the owners and the employés of the Carnegie Steel 


Co. Ltd., J am sure that I never want to go through another such 
fight. 


Thereafter the company dealt with all their workmen 
as individuals to mutual benefit and satisfaction and never 
had a strike or a lock-out to mar their harmonious rela- 
tionship, with the result that in 1900, the last year of 
its separate existence, its net profits amounted to $40,- 
000,000, thus fully verifying the prediction of Mr. Frick 
contained in a letter to Mr. Carnegie dated September 
8th, 1892, and reading as follows: 


I do not agree with you, as stated in your cable, that we are 
going to suffer for years at Homestead, as we surely would have 
suffered if the struggle had not taken place. 


Notwithstanding the heavy loss entailed by the shut- 
down at Homestead, the net profits of the Carnegie Steel 
Company for 1892 fell off only $300,000 from the gains of 
1891—from $4,300,000 to $4,000,000—and still showed 
16% upon the entire expanded capital of $25,000,000. 

The reinstatement of the Democratic party in full power 
on March 4th, 1893, was preceded by symptoms of much 
uncertainty respecting continuance of prosperous con- 
ditions. Business began to slacken early in the year and 
misgivings became so strong when President Cleveland 
insisted in his inaugural message that solemn pledges of 
substantial tariff reductions must be kept that manufac- 
turers, caught between enhanced timidity of capital and 

178 


Victory’s Cost and Gain 


unusual caution of consumers, were thrown back upon 
their own resources for money with which to fabricate 
products which they could not sell. The consequence was 
not actually the “‘panic’’ that it was termed but rather 
a universal and irresistible business depression which 
settled like a pall over the entire country. Many indus- 
trial establishments ‘‘closed for repairs’ and all “‘slowed 
down’’ to curtail production until the storm should blow 
over. 

The Chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company found 
himself in a most trying position. His aims were three- 
fold: (2) To guide the company through the critical period 
with a minimum of loss or sacrifice: (2) To demonstrate 
that workingmen fare better in co-operation with their 
own employers than under direction of labor unions 
and (3) To meet the financial requirements of the Com- 
pany without calling upon the controlling owner for 
assistance. 

The experience was less exciting than that of quelling 
a terrific outbreak in the previous year but the task was 
hardly less difficult. All thought of expansion or advance- 
ment fell inevitably before the absolute necessities of 
working capital and most rigid economy to provide liv- 
ing wages. Day by day and hour by hour throughout the 
blazing summer time Mr. Frick patiently and, so far as 
anyone perceived, happily paced the treadmill. Oddly 
the most revealing glimpses of that dreary period appear 
in cheery comments from Mr. Carnegie, with whom he 
was still in full accord, written in England and Scotland, 
and ending with the following: 

179 


: 


Frick the Man 


I know you have been having a hard time, but, under the cir- 
cumstances, the tenor of your letters and also your cables has been 
reassuring. It did me great good to get the words that, ‘‘all things 
considered, we are getting along comfortably.’’ You took in the 
situation promptly, I must say, upon your arrival, and have added 
even to your unsurpassed reputation as a financier. 

The Chairman, meanwhile, evinced no desire for the 
controlling owner’s return and brought into play the in- 
genuity developed years before in hiring money. He not 
only stood ready whenever requested to endorse person- 
ally any note offered for sale but also did not hesitate to 
gates the backing of his friends. 

“T took considerable liberty,’’ he wrote appealing to 
Mr. John Walker on August roth,‘‘in promising Mr. 
Arbuckle your individual guarantee, but I really do not 
think I could have secured the money without it, and I 
trust you will have no hesitancy in doing this for us. As 
you know every dollar I have or any of us have would 
always be used to protect you against loss of any kind, 
and while things are bad I am sure we can get through 
this with unimpaired credit.” 

Although Mr. Andrew W. Mellon was so fully occu- 
pied in protecting their mutual interests in outside under- 
takings, he could always be relied upon to fill temporary 
gaps; but Mr. Frick’s most noteworthy coup, when the 
firm’s credit was finally exhausted, consisted of pledging 
in lots of varying amounts the entire resources of the H. 
C. Frick Coke Company and realizing no less than six 
million dollars for the ‘‘accommodation’’ of the Carnegie 
concern. This happy stroke, achieved hardly less upon 
his own high financial rating than upon the record of 

180 


Victory’s Cost and Gain 


the company of his own creation, really tided over the 
financial crisis and won the confidence of the full force 
employed while neighboring mills were shutting down. 

But Homestead continued to be a thorn in his flesh. 
Young Mr. Schwab's zeal, charm and vivid personality 
had proved of inestimable value in restoring good feeling 
between the various groups so recently incensed at one 
another but, from the company’s standpoint, his meth- 
ods did not satisfy the pressing need of rigid economy in 
operation at sucha timeand the Chairman felt constrained 
to institute many reforms while the Manager was in Scot- 
land visiting Mr. Carnegie. Happily Mr. Schwab proved 
wholly tractable upon his return and, by promptly renew- 
ing his full support, Mr. Frick achieved hisimmediate pur- 
pose without impairing the full usefulness of the ‘‘great 
ability’’ which he ungrudgingly accorded his youthful 
coadjutor. 

The salutary effect throughout the entire organization 
of this evidence of unflinching determination to carry 
out the company’s policy could hardly be overestimated. 
_ A substantial reduction in salaries was decreed and ac- 
cepted by all affected without a whimper. Mr. Frick had 
already forwarded an outline of the percentage basis which 
he had adopted when he received Mr. Carnegie’s sugges- 
tion that reductions should apply to all salaries begin- 
ning with the Chairman’s; so that, in making acknowl- 
edgment, he merely remarked somewhat drily that *’No 
sensible person would expect anything else than that a 
reduction when made should include everybody,’’—an 
observation which drew no response. 

181 


Frick the Man 


Mr. Carnegie returned to New York early in September 
and went immediately to the White Mountains in search 
of relief from a slight indisposition and a few weeks later 
proceeded as far west as Chicago, whence he returned to 
New York by way of Pittsburgh, to facilitate consul- 
tation with Mr. Frick. But there was no imminent or 
important question to discuss. The condition of the Com- 
pany, compared with that of the country, was satisfac- 
tory and, contrasted with other steel concerns, as a con- 
sequence of shrewd financiering and enforced economies, 
was absolutely pre-eminent. There was no pressing need 
for money, no sign of labor disturbances and nothing, in 
fact, to do but to hold fast and mark time in hopeful an- 
ticipation of the general recovery in business which was 
bound soon to come. 

After all, as Mr. Carnegie had predicted, the bark of 
the Wilson tariff had proved worse than its bite and 
toward the end of December the Chairman was able 
to report to the controlling owner that, despite all 
drawbacks, the dreary year would show a net profit 
for the Carnegie Steel Company (Limited) of not less 
than $3,000,000, a decrease of only one million dollars 
from 1892. 

Whereupon Mr. Carnegie promptly decided to go to 
Europe for the winter and on the eve of sailing wrote to 
Mr. Frick: | 


Good-bye—If I had been as well two weeks ago as I am now I 
should not have thought of deserting you for several months, but 
I am subject to cable, recall or conference and I have faith in your 
judgment which keeps me easy. Yours ever, A.C. 


182 


Victory’s Cost and Gain 


The year 1894 opened more auspiciously for business 
and manufacturing than had been anticipated. Results 
for January clearly evidenced the upward trend and so 
delighted Mr. Carnegie that he wrote immediately from 
Luxor insisting that the Frick family visit Scotland in 
the summer. 

Differences of opinion among coke operators as to the 
method of meeting a labor crisis prevented the Chairman 
from leaving in early summet but, finally yielding to Mr. 
Carnegie’s persistent importunities, he sailed late in July 
and proceeded directly to Cluny Castle for a few days’ 
visit, which ended with mutual consciousness that per- 
haps never before had the two viewed all problems and 
policies so nearly eye to eye. 

A return visit to Pittsburgh in November seemed to 
tighten even more closely the bonds of understanding 
and friendship. 

Mr. Carnegie looked back upon it “‘with rare pleasure,” 
—indeed,‘‘we never enjoyed ourselves so much.”’ 

During the latter part of 1894, a difference in opinion 
respecting methods of dealing with competing coke oper- 
ators so nearly caused a break between the two partners 
that each offered to sell his interest to the other, but a 
satisfactory adjustment of all points in dispute was finally 
effected at an unrecorded personal interview. Undoubt- 
edly, when this meeting took place, sober second thoughts 
had implanted the conviction in both minds that each 
needed the other and that full separation would involve 
enormous mutual sacrifices. Assuredly Mr. Carnegie 
could not have failed to contrast the $4,000,000 net 

183 


Frick the Man 


profit of his company in the previous year with nearly 
$1,000,000 actual loss incurred by its chief competitor, 
the Illinois Steel Company, as a direct consequence of 
Mr. Frick’s surpassing management, and had written 
ea 
“Last year was tfeally fine under the circumstances. 

This year may not be better but a year comes after when 
I think double.”’ 

Mr. Frick, too, for his part, at forty-six, in full matu- 
rity of his powers and broadened by experience, could not 
have failed to recognize the wider opportunity afforded 
himself as the head of the commanding combination. 

So one may readily surmise that the atmosphere of the 
conference—wherever held and by whomsoever initi- 
ated—was from the beginning far less antagonistic than 
it was assuasive. Despite the unacceptable offer of each 
to sell out to the other, there was no disagreement in 
principle; the difference which had so nearly caused a 
complete severance of relations was found, after all, to 
have been one of degree only. Mr. Carnegie had been 
even more insistent than Mr. Frick himself that the time 
for a respite for the working partner had come as a mat- 
ter of both personal right and corporate policy, and 
it is altogether probable that, at the peace meeting, he 
evinced willingness to accept any solution that would 
ensure continuance of the single-headed management. 

In any case, Mr. Frick proposed the creation of a new 
post, to be filled by an official designated as President, 
who should superintend operation without interference 
but under the supervision and general direction of the 

184 


Victory’s Cost and Gain 


Chairman of the Board. Mr. Carnegie approved unhesi- 
tatingly and the arrangement, since adopted by nearly all 
great corporations, was initiated and Mr. Leishman was 
appointed President. 

While relinquishing his purpose to dispose of his entire 
interest in the Carnegie Company, Mr. Frick nevertheless 
felt constrained to rid himself of all financial obligations. 
From the day when he borrowed two thousand dollars 
from his sister to begin business with he had never been 
out of debt and now, after a full quarter century, seemed 
an opportune time to free his mind of consciousness of a 
fact which, though not important in itself, ought no 
longer to exist. The thought was not new. As long before 
as 1892 he had offered to sell to Mr. Carnegie at a low 
price a sufficient amount of his most cherished possession, 
stock in the H. C. Frick Coke Company, to take up the 
notes he had given in payment for his interest in the steel 
company, writing somewhat plaintively in the midst of 
the Homestead warfare: 

‘‘T should like to feel that I was out of debt for once, 
and that is what moves me to make this proposition to 
you. 

But Mr. Carnegie declined, saying: 

‘‘Remember you are not really zu debt—the collateral 
given up frees you or your estate—I don’t think you 
should lessen your interest in Frick Company—lIt is You, 
and the only trouble about it is its not being a Limited, 
so all dead wood can be lopped off.”’ 

—and Mr. Frick responded with full candor that on 
the whole he was “‘not at all disappointed.”’ 

185 


Frick the Man 


But the wish had persisted and Mr. Carnegie reluc- 
tantly accepted a fresh proposal to purchase 5 per cent of 
the 8 per cent interest in the Carnegie Steel Company 
which he held as collateral security for Mr. Frick’s obli- 
gations to himself, at 1.344 on the $1,250,000 involved, 
and to cancel the notes. 

This transaction reduced Mr. Frick’s total interest in 
the steel company from 11 per cent to 6 per cent, but left 
the remainder along with his large holdings in the coke 
company and in many other concerns conjointly with 
Mr. Mellon, free from incumbrance of any kind. 

So the controlling owner and the controlling director 
continued their business relationship upon the new and 
even basis of neither feeling under the slightest legal or 
moral obligation to the other. 


186 


XIV 


Oliver and Frick 


HE ensuing five years—1896-1900—comprised 

a period of successful expansion of the Carnegie 

Steel Company unsurpassed in the history of 

industrial development ,—net earnings increas- 
ing eightfold, from $5,000,000 to $40,000,000 a year, 
and actual values of properties owned in yet greater 
proportion, without the addition of a dollar of cash 
capital. 

Chief among the contributions to this amazing result , 
meeting at lowest costs enormous demands for steel prod - 
ucts, was the acquisition of mines capable of yielding 
huge quantities of Bessemer ore. Very early in his man- 
agement Mr. Frick had realized that control of sources 
of supply of raw material was essential to full independ- 
ence of the manufacturing unit into which he was weld- 
ing the segregated and competing plants. Its own coke, 
the company had; its own ore, it must have. The Tyrone 
region of Pennsylvania had promised well prior to the 
Chairman's advent but in practice its product had proved 
deficient in both quantity and quality, and prospecting 
had approached a standstill when a gleam of light ap- 
peared in the northwest. 

Iron ore had been discovered in the Lake Superior region 
as eatly as 1860, but it lay in ranges so distant that min- 

187 


Frick the Man 


ing was impracticable except in so small a way, with 
primitive tools transported through a hundred miles of 
forest from Duluth, that the first railroad to the nearest 
Vermilion range was not built until 1884. Although pro- 
duction was restricted to this section and development 
lagged for years, the extraordinary purity of the mineral 
did not escape notice, and only a rumor to the effect that 
Mr. John D. Rockefeller was making large investments 
in the region was needed to attract widespread attention. 

Among the most alert and energetic of investigators 
was Mr. Henry W. Oliver, of the big Pittsburgh firm of 
plow and shovel manufacturers, who lost no time in form- 
ing the Oliver Iron Mining Company to operate the first 
mine opened up on the famous Mesabi range, which soon 
becameand continues to be the most fruitful in the world. 

This was in 1892, the year of the Homestead trouble, 
but Mr. Frick was not so busy as to neglect an opportu- 
nity whose coming he had been awaiting for years and, 
immediately upon his return to his office partially recoy- 
ered from the effects of Berkman’s murderous assault, he 
opened negotiations with Mr. Oliver for participation in 
his mining enterprise. His approach was cordially wel- 
comed. The primary purposes of their two companies 
were identical. Both desired above all else to be assured 
adequate supplies of high-grade Bessemer ores for their 
blast furnaces; each, moreover, would gain through a 
combination providing a market for the entire product 
of the mine and the lowest transportation rates for guar- 
anteed tonnage; and the new company itself would be 
susceptible of unlimited expansion through unequalled 

188 


Oliver and Frick 


advantages in the purchase of products of other mines 
upon a royalty basis. True, the Carnegie Company would 
profit more largely, in proportion to its greater consump- 
tion; but this could be offset by provision of money 
needed for development purposes. 

Quick trading between friends who held each other in 
highest esteem proved feasible, and Mr. Oliver agreed 
to give the Carnegie Company one-half of the mining 
company’s capital stock in return for a mortgage loan of 
_ $500,000 to the latter for development purposes. 

Fully convinced that this combination was the most 
advantageous that ever had been, or probably ever could 
be made, for the Carnegie Company, Mr. Frick hastened 
to notify the controlling owner of his accomplishment, 
in confident expectancy of winning his enthusiastic ap- 
probation. But Mr. Carnegie, despondent over the pro- 
longation of the shutdown at Homestead and possibly 
chilled by the failure of his own costly experiments in 
the Tyrone region, had reached the conclusion that 
“pioneering don’t pay.”’ 

“Oliver’s ore bargain,’’ he responded from Rannock 
Lodge, ‘‘is just like him—nothing in it. If there 1s any 
department of business which offers no inducement, it is 
ore. It never has been very profitable, and the Mesabi is 
not the last great deposit that Lake Superior is to reveal.” 

Although the Chairman had made the bargain with 
full authority and insisted upon strict adherence to its 
terms, Mr. Carnegie strove persistently to prevent com- 
pliance by the company and, in the face of his opposition, 
development of the property was seriously retarded 

189 


Frick the Man 


through 1893 into 1894, when the activities of the Rocke- 
feller managers produced a disturbing effect upon his 
mind. 

‘“‘Oliver,’’ he wrote from Sorrento on March 16th, 
1894, ‘‘hasn’t much of a bargain in his Mesabi, as I see 
it, but in view of threatened combination it is good pol- 
icy to take the half as independent of its intrinsic value; 
it gives us a wedge that can be driven in somewhere to 
our advantage in the general winding up. In less strong 
hands, the Oliver would be squeezed. Remember Recka- 
fellows & Porter will own the R. R. and that’s like own- 
ing the pipe lines—Producers will not have much of a 
show. We are big enough, however, to take care of our- 
selves and if forced could make another outlet somehow. 

‘Taking half with Oliver means we have all the risk, 
must furnish all the capital—not a small amount, etc., 
etc.; besides, Oliver isn’t a good manager and mining 
needs just that thing. It’s a pity we have to go in at all, 
still I cannot but recognize we are right in flanking the 
combination as far as possible—There are no doubt others 
in Oliver’s position who will offer to do as he has, with 
us. I don’t think Standard people will succeed in making 
ore a monopoly like oil, they have failed in every new 
venture and Rockefeller’s reputation now is one of the 
poorest investors in the world. His railroads are almost 
worthless. Note Troy, Cotton Seed, etc., etc. Still Ifavor 
taking the Oliver half gratis.”’ 

This obviously reluctant assent was qualified within 
a fortnight when he wrote that he should “‘not be sorry 
if you miss one-half of Oliver mines,’’ was ‘‘not greatly 

1g0 


Oliver and Frick 


scared about Rockefellow,’’ did ‘‘not want any business 
managed by Harry (Oliver), good fellow though he is’’ 
and that “‘really’’ in any case Mr. Carnegie himself 
“should stand for controlling interest.’’ The hint thus 
conveyed evoking no response from the Chairman, on 
April 18th, 1894, he addressed a formal communication 
to the Board of Managers to this effect: 


You will find that this ore venture, like all other ventures in 
ore, will result in much trouble and less profit than almost any 
branch of our business. If any of our brilliant and talented young 
partners have more time, or attention, than is required for their 
present duties, they will find sources of much greater profit right 
at home. I hope you will make a note of this prophecy. 


Simultaneously, as revealed by Mr. J. Frederick Byers 
in an address delivered on February 26th, 1927, thirty- 
three years later, he was advising his friend, Mr. A. M. 
Byets, ‘against investment in association with Messrs. 
Oliver and Kimberly because of the hazards of the under- 
taking.’’ So, despite the astounding fact that, through 
the introduction of huge Oliver steam shovels, the out- 
put of the Mesabi range was increased from 29,245 tons 
in 1892 to 1,913,234 tons in 1894, the mining company 
continued to languish from inadequate capital for an- 
other two years. 

But in 1896, Messrs. Oliver and Frick, still persisting 
in the face of constant discouragement, effected an ar- 
tangement with Mr. Rockefeller’s managers to lease his 
properties upon a royalty basis of 25 cents a ton, as against 
65 cents a ton then universally paid, in consideration of 
a guaranteed output of 600,000 tons a year and a like 
amount from the Oliver mines, to be shipped over the 

IgI 


Frick the Man 


Rockefeller railroad and steamship lines to Lake Erie 
ports at a total rate of $1.45 a ton. The contract, running 
for a period of fifty years and indicating a visible saving 
to the Carnegie-Oliver interests of $500,000 a year, a 
total of twenty-five millions, was made subject to ap- 
proval by the Boards of the two companies and required 
the consent of Mr. Carnegie as controlling owner of the 
steel company. 

Mr. Oliver waited upon him in New York shortly after 
his return from Europe and submitted the agreement with 
a strong recommendation of acceptance from Mr. Frick, 
to whom Mr. Carnegie wrote immediately upon the con- 
clusion of the interview: 

Oliver called today. He has got matter really in good shape—so 
HE says. Hope he will have final papers to submit when you come. 
He may be too sanguine about closing on basis reported. 

Apparently all misgivings in Mr. Carnegie’s mind as 
to the advisability of engaging in mining operations were 
dissipated by the obvious merits of the proposition. But 
then arose another question, for which probably Mr. 
Oliver was prepared, in the light of the hint conveyed 
two years previously that he was “‘really’’ entitled to a 
controlling interest, without which he was never content 
for long to continue association with any corporation. 
Mr. Oliver acquiesced. And then the trading began, with 
the astute Scotchman in his element. The two interests, 
he thought, ought to be revised to correspond to the per- 
centages of consumption. That seemed undeniable. In 
any event, Mr. Oliver was in no position to dispute it. 

On the other hand, of course, Mr. Oliver should be 

192 


“4 


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‘se fat WY 


seiner eine 
nn alana aa 
Honea 


ete 


seiae NM al oh A Ely 
eng eer y 


§ 
4) 
: 
i 
if 


ar AMEN a hay or iy etry vow 


Ayton ele 


a 


& 


Oliver and Frick 


reimbursed to the extent of the actual cash he had paid 
in. The trading continued, as related by Mr. Carnegie: 


Oliver Mining Company made, say, $400,000. 


Now hesayshis%— = $200,000 

Now he got half his cost 

$120,000 60,000 

He wants his $260,000 2,3, 4, 5, 


years with interest—for this he sells us th 
making us éths. 

He asked $120,000 but when I showed him hevhad given as $60,- 
ooo % and that this was ‘‘gone’’—He agreed. He wanted 1 2 3 
4 § years. I said we could not pay anything shorter than 2 years. 
No doubt the interest sold will net this before it is due. 


2th of $400,000 is 5 pS 35323 
to begin with—then we 
have only to pay 1335333 


One year like last would pay it entire. 


The next year did, in fact, ‘“‘pay it entire’’ and much 
more; with the net result that the Carnegie Steel Com- 
pany acquired five-sixths and, of course, full control of 
the Oliver Mining Company, after it had proved highly 
successful, for literally nothing. 

‘Pretty good, I think,’’ Mr. Carnegie complacently 
remarked. 

But better yet was to ensue immediately. Thereduction 
of royalties paid on the Rockefeller output from 65 cents 
to 25 cents a ton, resulting in a corresponding lowering 
of selling prices at the Lake Erie docks, greatly alarmed 
the stockholders of other mining companies who, fore- 
seeing only disaster, began to throw their shares upon 
the market, only to discover that purchasers could not 
be found. A rare opportunity thus presented itself and 
early in the summer of 1897, when the demoralization 

193 


Frick the Man 


was at its worst, Messrs. Oliver and Frick concluded that 
the time was ripe to gather options upon the shares of 
the three most important companies. 

It was a difficult task, owing to the wide distribution 
of the stock throughout the country, but Mr. Oliver 
undertook it with characteristic energy and succeeded 
so well from the beginning that, warned by previous ex- 
perience, Mr. Frick went to Scotland laden with facts 
and figures calculated to avert conceivable opposition 
from the controlling owner. But Mr. Carnegie continued 
to balk at “‘pioneering’’ and, even after having studied 
the final report showing the acquisition by Mr. Oliver 
of more than four hundred options at astoundingly low 
prices, he vetoed the proposition with a jocular quip at 
the enthusiasm of his partners. 

Mr. Oliver was in despair. The options were about to 
expire and he was only too well aware that extensions 
could not be obtained. Although knowing that nothing 
effective could beadded by way of argument to the Chair- 
man’s strong presentation of the case, he also realized 
that the time had passed when Mr. Frick would plead 
with Mr. Carnegie for consideration of any kind. Having 
no such compunctions himself, he hung his last hope upon 
the slender thread of personal entreaty and, on September 
25th, 1897, sent the following telegram: 

To CarNEGIE LaGGAN 

I am distressed at indications here that Norrie options expiring 
on Monday, are to be refused. It would be a terrible mistake. The 
good times make it that I could not possibly secure these options 


again at fifty per cent., advance. The Norrie mine controls the 
whole situation. They have sold over one million tons this year. 


194 


Oliver and Frick 


With the additional property we will get from the fee owners, we 
secure fifteen to twenty million tons of the ore that the Carnegie 
Company are purchasing this year five hundred and fifty thousand 
tons. I will guarantee, counting the surplus they have in their 
treasury, to return in profits every dollar we invest in two years. 
Do not allow my hard summer’s work to go for naught. 

Henry W. OLIver 

This beseeching message added the requisite touch to 
Mr. Frick’s impressive reasoning; Mr. Carnegie replied 
promptly agreeing to abide by the decision of the Chair- 
_ man and the Board of Managers and, in the nick of time, 
Mr. Oliver was authorized by unanimous vote to declare 
the options. By so small a margin, the Carnegie-Oliver 
interests gained a position which enabled them to ac- 
quire within two years sufficient additional lands to give 
them exclusive ownership of two-thirds of the greatest 
high-grade Bessemer ore deposit in the world. 

Once the deal was made, Mr. Carnegie quickly awoke 
to realization of the wisdom of overriding his own whim 
against ‘‘pioneering.’’ 

“Tam happy,’ he wrote frankly to Mr. Frick as early 
as October gth, ‘‘that we are now secure in our ore sup- 
ply; it was the only element needed to give us an impreg- 
nable position.”’ 

Rejoicing in the Carnegie and the Oliver offices natu- 
rally was boundless but even there none, from the far- 
seeing Frick and the indomitable Oliver to the sanguine 
young partners headed by the buoyant Schwab and the 
canny Morrison, comprehended fully the vastness of the 
potentialities of the commonplace transaction. 

A very few figures suffice to indicate the concrete re- 


195 


Frick the Man 


sults. From less than 30,000 tons of ore in 1892, the out- 
put of the Mesabi range increased to 9,303,541 tons in 
1901 and reached 40,396,711 tons in 1918; the known 
supply turned over to the United States Steel Corpora- 
tion by the Carnegie Company in 1901 was valued by 
Mr. Schwab at $333,000,000; and the total known re- 
serve of the Mesabi region in 1920 was reported by the 
Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers to be 
I,400,000,000 tons. 

After noting in his book, ‘“The Story of Steel,’’ pub- 
lished in 1926, the recent increase in national wealth from 
220 billions of dollars to 350 billions, Mr. J. Bernard 
Walter, Editor Emeritus of the Scmentiric AMERICAN Said: 


If the writer were asked to name the principal agent in the enor- 
mous growth in wealth of this country during the past two decades, 
he would unhesitatingly name the vast iron deposits of the Lake 
Superior region and the consequent phenomenal growth of our 
steel industry. 


To this extent at any rate the dictum of Mr. Walker 
seems to be justified by two warrantable deductions, re- 
gatdless of the relative economic merits of competition 
and combination, to wit: 

(1) But for the acquirement of the Mesabi mines ob- 
tained for the Carnegie Company by Messrs. Oliver and 
Frick, with the assent of Mr. Carnegie, in the manner 
noted, the colossal United States Steel Corporation, with 
its later huge net earnings of $200,000,000 a year, could 
not have been organized; and 

(2) Without the subsequent intervention of Mr. Frick 
alone, as presently we shall show, in the expert opinion 
of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, the Corporation could hardly 

196 


Oliver and Frick 


have survived the first crisis of its infancy. The Carnegie 
Company was now assured an abundant supply of iron 
ore and cheap transportation from its mines to Lake Erie 
ports, but one essential connecting link was yet to be 
provided. That was conveyance by rail for two hundred 
miles from lakes to furnaces. The Pennsylvania railroad 
was the natural medium but its virtual monopoly had 
emboldened its management to exact excessive rates for 
inadequate service while dealing separately with the vari- 
ous Pittsburgh manufacturers. Both Mr.Carnegie, origi- 
nally, and Mr. Frick, subsequently, had chafed under this 
domination for years in vain. Impervious alike to the 
repeated threats of the former to arouse public opinion 
in behalf of justice to the city and of the latter to project 
a competing line, the powerful corporation had calmly 
assumed itself to be so strongly intrenched politically 
that there was no cause for apprehension. 

The acquirement of the Oliver Mining Company and 
the making of the Rockefeller alliance effected a com- 
plete change in this situation overnight and Mr. Frick 
lost no time in pointing out that the Carnegie Company 
was now in a position to finance a new railroad by agree- 
ing to furnish ample shipments and, if necessary, by guar- 
anteeing construction bonds, without itself contributing 
a dollar in cash. He no longer pleaded, he flatly demanded, 
the privilege of operating over Pennsylvania tracks the 
Carnegie Company’s trains of ore, with its own loco- 
motives and crews, on its own schedules. 

This was reprisal for past injuries with a touch of 
vengeance, but it seems to have been justified and the 

197 


Frick the Man 


discomfited Pennsylvania management was hesitating when 
word came from Mr. Carnegie to the effect that he had qui- 
etly acquired control of the rusty rails called Pittsburgh, 
Shenango and Lake Erie railroad through arrangements 
with Mr. Samuel B. Dick, its President, and Mr. Fred- 
erick H. Prince, the Boston capitalist, who had saved the 
company from actual bankruptcy by paying its coupons. 

Although naturally peeved at secret intervention which 
might have put him in an equivocal position, Mr. Frick 
perceived two reasons for rejoicing,—first, that fortu- 
nately he had made no commitment and, secondly, be- 
cause no conceivable project could have served better his 
purpose to attain complete independence for the Carnegie 
Company. So it came to pass that, in less than fifteen 
months, the old road was reorganized, rechristened the 
Pittsburgh, Bessemer and Lake Erie, rebuilt throughout, 
extended forty-two miles to join the Company's Union 
railway, and trains of thirty-five steel cats were running 
from the Company’s docks at Connaught over its new 
steel bridge, two-thirds of a mile long, across the Alle- 
gheny, and delivering 175,000 tons of ore to the big blast 
furnaces at Braddock, Duquesne and Pittsburgh. 

Thus was completed the thousand-mile chain, stretch- 
ing from the bowels of the earth north of Lake Superior 
to the salesrooms south of Lake Erie, which established 
the invulnerable preeminence of the Carnegie Steel Com- 
pany; and every link was unassailable save one. While 
the contract with Mr. Rockefeller’s steamship company 
affording conveyance of 1,200,000 tons of ore per annum 
for fifty years met immediate requirements fairly well, it 

198 


Oliver and Frick 


neither provided for the needs of probable expansion nor 
ensured the perpetuity of ownership, and incidentally 
still left the company even then partially dependent upon 
the service of unsubstantial shipping concerns. 

To safeguard the situation fully, Mr. Frick enlisted 
the services of Mr. Oliver and, at the end of fifteen months, 
that patient and skilful negotiator had purchased for the 
Oliver Mining Company a fleet of six vessels, along with 
the ore mines on the Marquette range owned by the Lake 
Superior Iron Company, and had formulated a plan for 
financing the undertaking through the issuance of bonds 
by a new subsidiary Pittsburgh Steamship Company. 

The securities found a ready market and the transaction 
was completed so expeditiously and admirably that Mr. 
Carnegie, thenabroad, so far from interposing objections, 
as in the previous instance already noted, promptly rati- 
fied the arrangement and, frankly reversing his opinion 
of the desirability of Mr. Oliver as a partner, offered him 
a valuable interest in the Carnegie Steel Company. 

Ten years of arduous labor, attended by many vicissi- 
tudes, had been required to fulfil Mr. Frick’s ambitious 
project of unification and expansion, but the great con- 
structive effort, fortified by amazingly efficient executive 
capacity, now began to find its reward in an increase 
in tons of steel ingots produced from 332,111 in 1889 
to 2,663,412 in 1899 and in net profits from $1,900,000 
to $21,000,000, of which, incidentally, $1,253,853 was 
earned on the company’s 30 per cent interest in the 
H. C. Frick Coke Company and no less than $1,067,000 
on its five-sixths interest in the Oliver Mining Company. 

199 


XV 
Negotiations 


HE year 1899 was the most eventful in the his- 

tory of the Carnegie Steel Company, not only 

revealing clearly for the first time its enormous 

earning capacity of more than 80 per cent upon 
its inflated capital, equal to 400 per cent upon its original 
paid-up shares, but also marking a complete severance of 
the personal and partnership relations of its two creative 
and guiding spirits. 

The three years following the reconcilement of Mr. 
Carnegie and Mr. Frick were not marred by serious alter- 
cations. Correspondence was renewed promptly and fre- 
quently educed differences of opinion respecting both 
policies and men, but contrary views were advanced 
tentatively, and expressed courteously, though plainly 
and frankly, with obvious design to avoid offensiveness. 

Early in 1896 a rift seemed imminent in consequence of 
Mr. Carnegie’s recurrence to negotiating with outsiders 
upon a basis differing from that adopted by the firm, 
without consulting or even notifying his partners. It 
was his yielding to this inclination that had just caused 
the rupture which came so near being complete and Mr. 
Frick felt that he could not tacitly assent to continuance 
of the practice by permitting the episode to pass unno- 
ticed. But his remonstrance was mild indeed as compared 

200 


Negotiations 


with the caustic protest that would surely have been 
forthcoming before the two had pledged the mutual con- 
fidence essential to better understanding. 

‘“True,’’ he wrote, “‘we did shake hands but there is a 
difference in the way of stating things: don’t you think 
so? On Sunday morning you had reached a different con- 
clusion, and were so set in your idea that you would not 
even discuss the matter, and this is certainly not what 
that open book above your mantelpiece says. I never 
told you what you say about the Bessemer Coke rate nor 
could anybody else have done so and told you the truth, 
as I said to yourecently when you referred to the matter.” 

And, looking to the future, he added: 

Suppose you deal frankly with me. Don’t put words in my mouth 
that I never uttered. 

You do not find me putting you in a compromising position 
when we get into discussion with outside people. I have stood by 
you in this matter just as loyally as you could wish and my sug- 
gestions as to appointments, etc., have not weakened your position. 
I may view the whole matter differently from you, but there is no 
reason why we should quarrel about it. What we are both after is 
the ultimate best interest of the Companies in which we are in- 
terested. We should not allow feeling to enter into such matters, 
as you have often said. You may not care for the dollars but your 
partners do. 

In all my dealings want of frankness with you on all subjects 
has not been a failing. It might from some points of view be con- 
sidered a fault. 

What, if any, response was evoked by this temperate 
avowal is not of record; quite likely none other than of 
a jocose and conciliatory nature; in any case, the pleas- 
ing change in tone proved effective, and Mr. Carnegie 
gaveno further cause for complaint. Almost immediately, 

201 


Frick the Man 


moreover, his most businesslike letters, though bearing 
no longer the familiar superscription ‘‘My dear Pard,”’ 
began to reflect the temperamental buoyancy, good fel- 
lowship and friendliness of former scribbled communi- 
cations, after this fashion: 


Suppose you put your “gigantic intellect’’ on this and write me 
freely. | 

Don’t let us fail now and you can buy $60,000 more pictures per 
year and remember me in your prayers. 

Douched, massaged—fine! ‘‘No family should be without it.”’ 

Paid my bill at Aix out of capital, sorry you couldn't arrange 
dead-head! 

We are all hoping for a visit from the Fricks this season at Ski- 
bo. I have my eye on adjoining estate, castle and all—tell Helen 
about this—I am anxious for her to come to MY side. 

How goes the struggle for European trip? I can give you plenty 
of fishing in salt or fresh water. P.S. Can you not get more land 
adjoining Illinois Steel? 


And so forth, by frequent reiteration, through the 
year 1898. 

The advent of the year 1899 synchronized with a crisis 
in the entire steel industry. Competing companies sud- 
denly awoke to realization of the fact that they had been 
so skilfully outgeneralled by the Carnegie management 
that the very existence of several, if notall, was imperilled. 
The menace was widespread, involving, in hardly less 
degree than the shareholders of the various corporations, 
the bankers who had floated their securities. Not only 
wete hundreds of millions of dollars and the priceless 
prestige of scores of investment brokers at stake but all 
stock values might be seriously affected by a general 
crash in steel shares. 

The pre-eminence of the Carnegie Company in resources, 

202 


Negotiations 


plants and organization, fortified by ownership of all 
agencies contributing to manufacture and by absolute 
financial independence, was undeniable, and a vastly 
greater earning power than had yet been revealed was 
shrewdly suspected. Only the few men in full control 
could compute the potentialities of the young industrial 
giant. But those few had access to accurate foreknowl- 
edge in the estimates of their Chairman which had never 
failed of realization. 

Mr. Carnegie called them together at his house in New 
York on the evening of January 5th to consider the sit- 
uation. Messrs. Carnegie, Frick, Phipps, Lauder, Schwab, 
Lovejoy and Peacock reported present and, by request of 
the controlling owner, the Chairman announced his judg- 
ment that the net profits of the coming year would reach 
$20,000,000 and might be expected to double that sum 
in 1900. In the event of these anticipations being verified 
by results—as subsequently they were—the company 
would inaugurate the coming century with an earning 
capacity of 160 per cent upon its outstanding stock, the 
equivalent of 800 per cent upon its entire cash-paid 
capital. 

Two questions, said Mr. Carnegie, confronted the part- 
nets present, representing practically all of the share- 
holders: 

(2) Should a price be fixed upon the entire property, 
including 30 per cent of the stock of the H. C. Frick 
Coke Company, for submission to a syndicate of New 
York and Chicago capitalists who had made overtures 


for its purchase? and 
203 


Frick the Man 


(2) In the event of a sale upon that basis failing of 
consummation, should steps be taken to consolidate the 
Steel Company and the Coke Company on terms to be 
agreed upon? 

Both proposals were unanimously decided in the af- 
firmative, and the price was fixed at $250,000,000, pay- 
able one-half in cash and one-half in fifty-year, five-per- 
cent gold bonds. 

This offer was declined by the Syndicate vik it was 
reported, had hoped to make partial payment in the 
stock of a new company. 

Two plans were then drawn for the consolidation of 
the Steel and Coke Companies,—one by Mr. Frick pro- 
viding for the purchase of both properties by a new com- 
pany with $60,000,000 capital and $100,000,000 bonds 
and another by Mr. Carnegie increasing the proposed 
capitalization to $150,000,000 of preferred and common 
stock and the bond issue to $150,000,000. These and 
other proposals were under consideration when a fresh 
proffer was made by a syndicate headed by Former Judge 
W. H. Moore, looking to the purchase of Mr. Carnegie’s 
majority holdings in both companies for $157,950,000, 
payable in $100,000,000 first mortgage bonds and $57,- 
950,000 in cash. 

This sum was pronounced satisfactory by Mr. Carnegie, 
but as a consideration for an option he required a cash 
deposit of $1,170,000 to be paid to himself if the Syn- 
dicate should fail to consummate the transaction within 
ninety days. The amount thus fixed he reckoned as his 
percentage of a total option price of $2,000,000. Mr. 

204 


Negotiations 


Moore offered to put up $1,000,000, the Carnegie part- 
ners waived payments for their percentages in the total 
option price, Messrs. Frick and Phipps contributed the 
additional $170,000 required by Mr. Carnegie, and all 
parties to the agreement signed the papers on April 
24th. 

Mr. Carnegie, having publicly proclaimed his inten- 
tion to sell out to his partners when he should retire 
from business, preferred not to deal with outside parties 
personally and gave his power of attorney to Messts. 
Frick and Phipps, his senior partners, to execute the agree- 
ment and to complete the entire transaction on his be- 
half. He then sailed for England after having arranged 
with Mr. Frick to keep him fully informed, regarding 
the progress of the Syndicate’s endeavors. 

There then seemed to be a perfect understanding be- 
tween Mr. Carnegie and his designated agents but later 
developments indicated much confusion in the former’s 
mind from the beginning. On May 4th, the following 
cablegram was sent from New York: 


Carnegie, Langham Hotel, London. 
Option money deposited today. We furnish one hundred and 
seventy thousand. Except Lauder, your partners underwrite largely 


and look to you for kind aid. Teaeas Trek 


Testifying before the Congressional Investigating 
Committee in January, 1912, however, when asked by 
Chairman Stanley if he ‘“‘did not know at any time’’ 
that his partners ‘‘had any interest in that option,’ 
Mr. Carnegie replied, ‘‘No sir, I did not suspect it,’’ and 
the colloquy continued: 


205 


Frick the Man 


Tue CuarrMan. Was not the amount put to your credit, when 
the option was not carried through, $1,180,000? 

Mr. Carnecis. When I returned from Europe I found that they 
had deposited the amount due me, which I got. 

Tur CHAIRMAN. Which was $1,180,000 was it not? 

Mr. Carngciz. I think so. About that. 

Tue Cuarrman. Did you not know at that time that a part of 
that money was contributed by your partners? Were you not told 
that at that time? 

Mr. Carnecigz. Part of what money? 

THe CuarrMan. A part of the $1,180,000 that was put up for 
that option. | 

Mr. Carnecie. I was in Europe, and I did not hear anything. 
I sailed before the option money was deposited. 

Tue CuairMan. Were you not told in Europe that your part- 
ners had put up a part of that money? 

Mr. Carneciz. When the option was not executed, I lost all in- 
terest init, and things that came to me bearing upon it I never read. 

Tue Cuairman. Did you not stipulate at the time, or promise at 
the time, or make a statement at the time, or send a letter from 
Europe at the time, stating that if your partners had put up any of 
this money they would be refunded their portion of the money? 

Mr. Carneciz. Ido not remember that at all. 

Tue Coarrman. I will hand youa letter here, and ask you if this 
is not your handwriting, containing a statement with reference to 
this option, that you will demand this money and that— _ 


“Of course any part paid by my partners 
I shall refund.”’ 


I will ask if that is in your handwriting. That is a photographic 
copy of the letter (handing paper to Mr. Carnegie). The main part 
of it is written by an amanuensis, but the line across the middle is 
what I refer to. I will ask you if that is not in your handwriting? 

Mr. Carnecre. Yes; of course. I have never seen this since I 
wrote it. I wrote this. I shall have to study it a moment. I never 
knew of the deposit of my money until I came back, and no part- 
ner ever asked me for any money that I can think of. 


Later he declared his willingness ‘‘to refund to all of 
them today, but if Mr. Frick and Mr. Phipps entered 
206 


Negotiations 


into a contract with the Moore Brothers by which they 
assumed to make $5,000,000 apiece, and never told me 
about it, why, I do not think I am obligated to pay them 
anything now.”’ 


Mr. Garpner. Do you mean half a million dollars or $5 ,000,- 
000? You said $5,000,000 the other day, I think. 

Mr. Carneciz. Now, it may be half a million or it may be 
$5,000,000. I think I said five millions, did I not? If I were asked 
what I thought, I should say it was half a million each. I can only 
state what I heard about this. 

Mr. Garpner. I think you said day before yesterday five mil- 
lions. AmI right, Mr. Reed? 

Mr. Rezp (Mr. Carnegie’s attorney). Five millions of the stock 
of the new company was to go to them, he said. 

Mr. Garpner. Was it $5,000,000 each or $5,000,000 in all? 

Mr. ReEp. Ido not know. 

Mr. Carnecte. Well, that is the best of my recollection. 

* * * * * 

Mr. Garpner. The testimony was, as I remember it, that the 
option ran in the name of Judge Moore for your share in the com- 
pany. 

Mr. Carneciz. I never knew Judge Moore was a party to it. If 
I had known it, I would not have given them an option upon any 
account. 


The records, nevertheless, show that on May 1oth, 
1899, Messrs. Frick and Phipps cabled an outline of the 
Syndicate’s plan of reorganization and clearly identified 
it ten days later ina second cablegram reading as follows: 

New York, May 20th, 1899. 


CaRNEGIE CLASHMORE SCOTLAND. 

Moote’s plan cabled was not made public but requiring our aid 
consented to Pennsylvania charter. Present plan capital Two hun- 
dred and fifty millions of one kind of stock to be sold at par subject 
to bonds. Proceeds of fifteen millions stock go into treasury and 
fifteen millions to bear expenses. One-third of the balance to Moore, 
one-third to us and one-third to be held for deserving young men, 


207 


Frick the Man 


thus carrying out your long cherished idea. Expect to offer public 

soon. After allowing fair premium on bonds you will see we are 

offering the stock at less than paid you. Bonds are a serious objec- 

tion, perhaps fatal. The sum needed is immense, hence uncertainty. 
Frick. Purpps. 


This cablegram was amplified three days later in a 
letter from Mr. Frick to Mr. Carnegie at Skibo Castle 
reading in essential part as follows: 

May 23rd, 1899. 

I beg to enclose a copy of the agreement reached last Friday, 
after a hard struggle, and after an offer to Mr. Moore to return 
his money, which he refused to accept. | 

We endeavored to limit Moore’s share of the profits in pro- 
motion to one-fifth of the amount left of $15,000,000, but finally 
compromised on one-third. 

This agreement puts the matter in control of Mr. Phipps and 
myself, and is on a very conservative basis, in view of what has 
been agreed to pay you, and on a basis where our employés and 
friends can safely invest. It is astonishing the demand there is 
from that source. 

I propose having all of our partners who take stock in the new 
Company join in an agreement not to sell any of their stock for 
two years, unless otherwise mutually agreed. | 


These communications certainly seem to show that, if 
Mr. Carnegie was kept in ignorance (1) of Mr. Moore’s 
connection with the enterprise, (2) of the participation 
of Messrs. Frick and Phipps in both the general under- 
taking and the promotion profits and (3) of the expec- 
tation that the junior partners would partake of the 
underwriting, the fact could hardly be attributed to any 
attempt at concealment on the part of Messrs. Frick 
and Phipps. | 

These strange misapprehensions on the part of Mr. 
Carnegie, however, being unsuspected by anyone else, 

208 


Negotiations 


had no effect upon the negotiations and all signs pointed 
to success of the undertaking when suddenly there fell a 
bolt from the blue in the complete demoralization of the 
money market caused by the unexpected death of Former 
Governor Roswell P. Flower, then head of the most ac- 
tive and most seriously extended brokerage firm in Wall 
Street. All values shrank so sharply overnight that the 
great number of banks and bankers involved, already 
overloaded with underwritings, were in no position to 
make further commitments. 

While the partial panic thus created was not expected 
to be of long duration, it was a virtual certainty that the 
Moore Syndicate would be unable, even with the power- 
ful aid of Mr. George F. Baker, to raise the many mil- 
lions required to take up the Carnegie option within the 
time allotted. A reasonable extension, such as was being 
generally allowed in like enterprises, Judge Moore had 
reason to believe, would suffice to meet the temporary 
crisis, and in the circumstances he did not doubt that it 
would be granted. Mr. Frick and Mr. Phipps were far 
less confident and promptly cabled to Mr. Carnegie pro- 
posing a conference at Edinburgh. On May 29th Mr. Frick 
wrote to Mr. Moore in Chicago: 


On Saturday we received a cable from Mr. Carnegie, in reply to 
the one which you saw sent him on Friday. He said he would be 
delighted to see us, not, however, at Edinboro: we would have to 
go to Skibo, as he was doing strictly an office business. As you are 
of opinion that October would be the most propitious time for 
renewing our efforts to put this matter through, and as our option 
expires about August 4th, it seems to me that your interest, being 
so large, should induce you to go abroad and join Mr. Phipps and 
myself in the interview with Mr. Carnegie regarding an extension 


209 


Frick the Man 


of the same, and a modification of some of its terms. I personally 
should feel much better if you would join us at Mr. Carnegie’s 
castle on the 21st of June. If you should decide to go, it would be 
well to keep it entirely quiet, and not let the newspapers know 
that you are going abroad to see him. I have grave fears that Mr. 
Carnegie will decline to extend the option. He will regard it as a 
cold business transaction, so that the result, as far as you are con- 
cerned, would be to lose the money you have paid, and I have 
serious doubts about Mr. Carnegie’s willingness ever to return it. 
Please think this over and let me hear from you. 


Mr. Moore replied that the necessity of attending to 
other matters at home would prevent him from going. 
Even though circumstances were otherwise, moreover, 
he should doubt the advisability of making the trip. 

“Of course,’’ he said with shrewd insight, “I do not 
care to lose the money and Mr. Carnegie would undoubt- 
edly believe that the long distance travelled was for the 
sole purpose of saving it. If you and Mr. Phipps cannot 
convince him that he will be a loser if he does not take 
advantage of this opportunity, I feel certain that he can- 
not be convinced.’’ 

Reluctantly but frankly concurring with this judg- 
ment, Mr. Frick and Mr. Phipps sailed and put forth 
their best endeavors, with the disappointing result that, 
at the end of a month, Mr. Frick cabled to Mr. Moore: 

Carnegie refuses to extend or modify option. Impossible. 

So the deal fell through and, on the day following the 
expiration of the option, the forfeited $1,170,000 was 
credited to Mr. Carnegie’s personal account on the books 
of the Carnegie Steel Company. 

The breakdown of negotiations with the Moore Syn- 
dicate, marking failure of the third attempt to enable 

210 


Negotiations 


Mr. Carnegie to withdraw from active business, was 
most disappointing naturally to his partners who, under 
the final arrangement skilfully effected by Mr. Frick, 
would have gained control of the great property which 
jointly they had built up. Obviously, however, there 
was nothing to do but to take up anew the various 
plans which had been suggested for consolidation of the 
Steel and Coke Companies. Having reached this conclu- 
sion, and divining further that parley with the con- 
_ trolling owner at that stage would prove surely futile 
and possibly acrimonious, the two chief senior mem- 
bers of the firm separated, Mr. Phipps returning to his 
place in Scotland and Mr. Frick to Aix les Bains for rest 
and meditation, with the understanding that the latter 
should return to America for consultation with the jun- 
ior partners and the formulation of a fresh proposal. 

It was a disheartening renewal of what seemed to have 
become, for no apparent reason, a hopeless undertaking. 
The real motive of Mr. Carnegie was wholly conjec- 
tural. Was he, like his partners, disconcerted by the col- 
lapse of the latest trading which would have brought 
to him a fortune greater probably than any other in the 
world and given to him the freedom which he craved? 
If so, why had he refused to grant the brief extension of 
the option which everybody believed would produce 
that result? Or did he consider $1,170,000 in the hand 
worth $157,950,000 in the bush? One per cent upon so 
huge a sum realized surely could not be reckoned as ex- 
cessive even though it should be sacrificed; it could not, 
moreover, be lost in case of a second forfeiture of the 

211 


Frick the Man 


option, whose price was already in hand and would re- 
main there under the identical terms of the pine: 
agreement. 

Had Mr. Carnegie’s attitude changed since he sold the 
privilege of purchase to persons then unknown but sub- 
sequently revealed to him, though not that he could re- 
call, as chiefly his own associates? Had he really wished 
to pass control of the entire property to his partners, 
with Henry Clay Frick at their head? 

This was the question that puzzled the two senior 
members because it bore directly upon the problem of 
consolidation. Itis hardly conceivable that either of them 
had forgotten that the first words of Mr. Carnegie’s pros - 
pectus which accompanied the plan submitted by him 
were these: 


In pursuance of a decision of long standing, the four principal 
owners of the Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, and the H. C. 
Frick Coke Company (Messrs. Carnegie, Phipps, Frick and Lauder) 
now retire from active business. 


—a statement true as to Mr. Phipps but a complete sur- 
prise to Mr. Frick and then quite contrary to his desire. 

And yet, somewhat contradictory of this ‘decision of 
long standing,’’ as Mr. Frick must have recalled, Mr. 
Carnegie had simultaneously pencilled on the back of a 
memorandum sent to Mr. Lauder and the junior partners 
the following personal note: 


H. C. F.—Have written Lauder as desired. Let them decide 
whether to include our Frick Coal Company stock or not. I don’t 
care. It’s good enough to hold as long as I can have you as my 
pard looking after it. I’m not going to force it on my partners. 


22 


Negotiations 


And there the matter had been left. What was the por- 
tent of it all? Did Mr. Carnegie really favor the consoli- 
dation for which he, in common with his associates, had 
voted? Or was it his underlying purpose to segregate the 
two companies and, by relegating the Chairman of both 
to coke production, to eliminate him from steel manu- 
facture? Or did hetruly careas little, one way or the other, 
as he had seemed to mind smashing the trade with the 
Moore Syndicate? Or what? | 

Bewildered by the strange workings of a mind which 
he was never able fully to comprehend, Mr. Frick sailed 
for home on August 30th to evolve a reorganization 
through anticipated ‘“‘consolidation,’’ harassed, dubious 
and mistrustful, with only the consciousness of the es- 
tablishment of a closer personal relationship with Mr. 
Phipps which might, as in fact it did, prove to be of 
inestimable value. 

Henry Phipps, Jr. was not merely the second largest 
owner of the Carnegie Company; as the only surviving 
partner of the brothers Kloman whose one little engine 
and single trip-hammer constituted the basis of the great 
plant, he was its oldest member, preceding Mr. Carnegie 
by four years,—from 1861 to 1865, when the Union Iron 
Mills Company was organized with a capital of $500,- 
ooo to take over the firm’s property and the Cyclops mill, 
in which Mr. Carnegie had acquired an interest. 

The partnership of the two young men—Mr. Phipps 
was then twenty-six and Mr. Carnegie thirty— continued 
through many vicissitudes for thirty-six years, at the end 
of which they sold their holdings to the United States 

213 


Frick the Man 


Steel Corporation for colossal sums. During this long 
period, until toward the very last, they were to each 
other ‘‘Andrew’’ and ‘‘Harry,’’ and no serious disturb- 
ance of their amicable relations had arisen when the 
transaction with the Moore Syndicate fell through. 

Nevertheless, although from the beginning subordi- 
nate to Mr. Carnegie as controlling owner, Mr. Phipps 
scrupulously maintained his fullindependencein thought 
and action. His undeviating course, indeed, could not 
be better depicted than by himself, in a letter addressed 
to ‘“My Dear Andrew’”’ in 1890 protesting against what 
he considered the unfairness of a virtual edict of the con- 
trolling owner, to this effect: 


With regard to the sale of undivided stock, if it were in my 
possession, I would do pretty much as you would wish, as it al- 
ways gives me pleasure to concur with you—when I can properly 
do so. A right decision in this matter is less important to me in its 
effects upon my pocket than its influence upon my mind. To feel 
that I have been rightly treated is a greater pleasure to me than 
any probable or possible gain in money; That is subordinate, the 
first is everything; and next to it is the feeling that the business in 
which my heart has ever been, has been dealt with on timehonored, 
safe and just business principles. 

“You have not forgotten,’’ he interjected, careful to 
voice his own appreciation of his partner’s considera- 
tion, ‘the time I had to get Frick in, but on my argu- 
ments and strong urging you consented, with the proviso 
that I should represent his stock. Your overcoming your 
powerful convictions so long held was very clever and I 
ever held it as a notable instance of your reasonableness.”’ 

It was frank recognition of his own responsibility un- 
doubtedly that impelled Mr. Phipps to uphold Mr. Frick 

214 


Negotiations 


in the trying early days of his management but it is no 
less certain that, once the new executive had won his 
spurs, his every act was judged upon its merits; that was 
Mr. Phipps’s conception of perfect fairness to both share- 
holders and management. In point of fact, the two men 
apparently never disagreed upon any point of policy or 
method but, owing to Mr. Phipps’s prolonged absences, 
they were not brought into close personal contact until 
Mr. Carnegie deputed them to act for himself, as well as 
for the Company, in the negotiations with Mr. Moore. 
The outcome of the ensuing difficulties on all sides was 
an arousal of mutual respect and faith which led them 
to see eye to eye from that time forward. 

It may be well believed, therefore, that Mr. Frick wel- 
comed the wise counsel of his sympathetic associate con- 
tained in the following letter which awaited his perusal 


on the steamer: 
hel ricl:. Beaufort Castle, August 26th, 1899. 


Though I gave my views strongly and fully to my three senior 
associates, yet I consider it a duty to put them in a more enduring 
form. 

The price at which it is proposed that we take over the prop- 
erties of the firm is far too high; unless it is intended to make a 
quick sale and get out of business, which appears to be the inten- 
tion of mainly one member. You suggested $250,000,000, and I 
think you spoke wisely. Perhaps it will be necessary to give more, 
but we should not pay the $320,000,000. We cannot defend the 
transaction to the community now, nor in later years to ourselves. 

My aim is to make the securities good enough to keep. Our 
friend only wants to make them good enough to give away. 

The senior says we can prick the bubble of trusts. Where is there 
one that is burdened with fixed interest charges exceeding $8,000,- 
ooo. Time taken now to negotiate will bring better results than 
perhaps years of earnings. 


215 


Frick the Man 


We should want the basis on which we start, one to inspire 
confidence instead of derision. 

As Mr. C., in many letters and conversations, has stated his 
desire to benefit the firm, when, if not now, is he to do it? Good 
times like the present, make bad times; a law sure as the swing of 
the pendulum. We have experience to know these elementary 
truths. Have we the sense to put them into practice? 

If a fair value was agreed upon, probably we would be willing 
to give the retiring partner all bonds; otherwise, I think I will 
take my share, and advise my friends to do likewise. 

I reserve the same right that any of the other partners possess 
as to a final decision. 

The quiet and time for reflection on the voyage, gives you a 
good chance to think carefully over the foregoing. Upon you will 
rest the great responsibility, which, in respect to the value of the 
property, few men in the world have ever had to meet. Reputation 
and profit alike require that you should pause before you take this 


serious step. 
P Yours very truly 


Henry Puteps. 

Enheartened by this assurance of firm support by the 
most powerful partner other than the controlling owner, 
without regard to the latter’s wishes, of a prudent and 
conservative programme such as had always appealed 
to his own judgment, Mr. Frick, while on the ocean, 
made a rough draft of a plan upon the lines suggested by 
Mr. Phipps, whipped it into shape immediately upon 
atrival, obtained the written approval of all the junior 
partners within reach, comprising Messrs. Schwab, L.C. 
Phipps, Clemson, Gayley, Singer, Peacock, Curry, Mor- 
rison and Lovejoy, and one week after landing cabled to 
Mr. Phipps: 

Unanimous favoring reorganization two hundred fifty millions 


without bonds but will write fully after further meeting next 
week,  H.C.F. 


216 


Negotiations 
On September 28th he wrote to Mr. Phipps: 


The enclosed plan is the outcome of many conferences and much 
consideration on the part of all. From what I know of your views, 
I am inclined to think you will not approve of some features of it 
on first reading. However, I should like you to give it serious 
consideration, and on your return home, before you take the mat- 
ter up, you will give me an opportunity of talking it over with 
you. Even if you should not sail, as your last letter to me would 
indicate, before the middle of November, we would have ample 
time to talk it over before it need be taken up with the Senior, or 
others. ; 

P.S.—Mr. Lovejoy is mailing Mr. Carnegie a copy of the en- 
closed, signed by all today. 


“We would not favor any plan that would contem- 
plate bonding the property,’’ were the final words of 
the proposed agreement signed by the junior partners. 

That settled it. Mr. Carnegie rejected the plan in- 
stantly. He wanted bonds. 


217 


XVI 
Mr. Frick Receives His Resignation 


rn. CARNEGIE returned to New York in 

October and shortly after his arrival at- 

tended a meeting of the Board of Managers 

in Pittsburgh. He was in high spirits and 

never more jovial. If he detected a certain tenseness in 

the atmosphere, the fact was not apparent. He fairly 

radiated goodfellowship, sweetness of spirit, apprecia- 
tiveness of his associates and kindliness for all men. 

The meeting itself was harmonious throughout, only 
one subject out of routine being considered. Mr. Frick 
announced that he had recently acquired, partly in ex- 
change for other real estate that he had owned for years, 
certain lands above Peter’s Creek which he contemplated 
putting on the market. 

Before doing so, however, in view of Mr. Schwab's 
opinion that the Company would need the property be- 
fore long, he felt that he should offer the privilege of 
purchase to the Board. Personally he doubted that the 
Company could utilize it advantageously for many years 
and the only reason for acquiring it would be to prevent 
construction of a large competitive plant or to hold in 
reserve to meet possible contingencies. Mr. Lawrence 
Phipps, the Manager most familiar with real estate, 
had valued it at $4000 an acre, which probably could be 

218 


Mr. Frick Receives His Resignation 


obtained, but the price to the Company would be $3500. 

The Board, with Mr. Carnegie’s sanction, voted unani- 
mously to buy the land. Subsequently, however, Mr. Frick 
felt constrained to impose an unacceptable condition 
upon the transaction and presently sold the property to 
outsiders for $500,000 more than he would have obtained 
from the Company. 

The condition referred to consisted of a peremptory de- 
mand for nothing less than an apology from Mr. Carnegie. 

Following the highly agreeable meeting of the Board, 
Mr. Carnegie chatted gaily with individual members, 
made a few desultory remarks privately to Mr. Frick 
concerning a new plan for consolidation, in the course 
of which he casually submitted a mystifying proposal to 
exchange for the latter’s coke stock an additional inter- 
est in the Steel Company, ‘‘dollar for dollar,’’ and con- 
versed at length with Mr. John Walker, former manager of 
Carnegie, Phipps & Co., and still a large holder of Frick 
Company stock. No sooner had he reached his home in 
New York than the purport of his various observations, 
divulged to Mr. Frick, caused deep resentment. Chief 
among the aspersions reported was an alleged insinua- 
tion that the Chairman had wrongfully exacted from 
the Company an undue profit on the sale of his land to 
the Board of Managers. 

Nothing imaginable could have offended Mr. Frick 
more deeply and, having decided to retaliate by making 
his refutation of what he considered a personal insult a 
matter of record, he addressed a formal communication 
to the Board reading in part as follows: 

219 


Frick the Man 


Mr. Carnegie also stated, I am told, while here, that he had 
purchased that land from me above Peter’s Creek; that he had agreed 
to pay market price, although he had his doubts as to whether I 
had any right, while Chairman of the Board of Managers of the 
Carnegie Steel Company, to make such a purchase. He knows how 
I became interested in that land, because I told him so in your 
presence, the other day. Why was he not manly enough to say to 
my face what he had said behind my back? He knew he had no 
right to say what he did. Now, before the Steel Company becomes 
the owner of that land, he must apologize for that statement. 

Harmony is so essential for the success of any organization that 
I have stood a great many insults from Mr. Carnegie in the past, 
but I will submit to no further insults in the future. 

There are many other matters I might refer to, but I have no 
desire to quarrel with him, or to raise trouble in the organization, 
but, in justice to myself, I could not at this time, say less than I 
have. 


A copy of the statement was sent to Mr. Carnegie and 
was followed by a notice that, at its next meeting, the 
Board had approved the minute. As soon as he received 
this information, Mr. Carnegie entrained for Pittsburgh 
on December 31rd, called for an immediate meeting of the 
Board, which Mr. Frick refrained from attending, and 
demanded that the Managers sign a paper requesting 
the Chairman to resign, saying that he should not use 
it unless it became necessary to do so. 

Armed with this document, he then waited upon Mr. 
Frick and reminded him of his repeated assertions that 
he had no desire to retain for a moment an executive 
position, contrary to the wishes of a shareholding ma- 
jority. What more he may have had in mind to say can 
only be surmised, as Mr. Frick brought the interview to 
an abrupt conclusion by a nod of acquiescence and, on 

220 


Mr. Frick Receives His Resignation 


the next day, the following entry was made in the min- 
ute book of the Company: 


At a meeting of the Board of Managers of The Carnegie Steel 
Company, Limited, held at the General Offices of the Association, 
Carnegie Building, Pittsburgh, Pa., at 12:30 p.m., Tuesday, De- 
cember 5, 1899, there were present MM. Schwab (president), 
Peacock, Phipps, Morrison, Clemson, Gayley and Lovejoy (secre- 
tary); and MM. Carnegie, Henry Phipps, George Lauder and W. 
H. Singer. 

The following communication was read: 

December 5th, 1899. 


Gentlemen: 
I beg to present my resignation as a member of your Board. 
Yours very truly, 
HC. PRicx, 


To the Board of Managers, 
The Carnegie Steel Co., Ltd., 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 

On motion, (MM. Clemson and Peacock), the resignation was 
accepted, with the sincere thanks of the Board of Managers, both 
as such and as representing the Shareholders; for efficient, zealous 
and faithful service as a member of this Board from January 14, 
1889, to the present day; The vote being unanimous, and all present 
concurring. 

So ended peaceably an arduous service of ten years and 
eleven months, but not the struggle of two determined 
men. Mr. Carnegie’s war proved to be one of extermi- 
nation and Mr. Frick had not yet begun to fight. 

Of vastly greater importance than a mere question of 
propriety involved in a minor real estate transaction was 
the ‘‘coke difference’ mentioned in Mr. Carnegie’s letter 
to Mr. Frick. The price which the Carnegie Company 
should pay the Frick Company for coke had been a bone 
of contention for ten years, the former as by far the 
largest purchaser quite properly demanding a preferen- 

221 


Frick the Man 


tial rate and the latter insisting with equal justness that 
the charge should not be so low as to warrant criticism 
by its minority shareholders. 

Each year the officers of the respective companies had 
experienced increasing difficulty in satisfying all con- 
cerned and, early in December, 1898, Mr. Carnegie and 
Mr. Frick personally took the matter in hand with a 
view to effecting a permanent arrangement. Each natu- 
rally favored the company which bore his name, but the 
question quickly simmered down to $1.50 per ton asked 
by Mr. Frick as against $1.20 offered by Mr. Carnegie 
and a compromise at $1.35 per ton for a period of five 
years, beginning on January 1st, 1899, was agreed upon. 

Pending formal action by the two Boards of Managers, 
Mr. Carnegie gave notice through Messrs. Lauder and 
Schwab that a clause must be inserted in the contract 
providing that if at any time the market price should fall 
below $1.35 per ton, the charge to the Carnegie Com- 
pany should be reduced accordingly. Mr. Frick promptly 
rejoined through the same intermediaries that the under- 
standing did not comprise any such arrangement and he 
could not recommend the execution of a contract on that 
basis. Nevertheless he stood ready to make any reason- 
able concession to effect a settlement. Perhaps it would 
be well to let the matter rest until Mr. Carnegie should 
make his promised visit to Pittsburgh when another 
effort might be made to reach a definite agreement. 

But Mr. Carnegie did not go to Pittsburgh and, when 
Mr. Frick raised the question in New York on the eve of 
his sailing, he refrained from discussing it, and Mr. Frick 

222 


Mr. Frick Receives His Resignation 


pressed its consideration no further, chiefly no doubt be- 
cause the Moore option was then uppermost in the minds 
of both. 

Meanwhile, quite paradoxically, the Coke Company 
was selling large quantities of fuel to the Steel Company 
at one price and the Steel Company was buying the same 
product from the Coke Company at another. That is to 
say, the seller was charging the market rate, less about 
20 per cent preferential, as usual, and the purchaser was 
accepting at $1.35 per ton, under a contract which Mr. 
Carnegie declared he had made with Mr. Frick. The 
difference in favor of the steel company was exceeding 
$600,000 for the year 1899 and seemed likely to amount 
to millions annually for years to come. 

Such was the confused and dangerous condition of 
affairs when the Chairman returned from Europe follow- 
ing the Moore Syndicate fiasco and called a meeting of 
the Board of Directors of the Coke Company for Octo- 
ber 25th to make official record of the company’s posi- 
tion. President Lynch submitted the following: 


Resotvep, That the president be authorized and instructed to 
notify the Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, that the existence of 
any contract is denied and that no claim to settle in accordance 
with the terms of the alleged contract for past, present and future 
deliveries of coke to the said Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, 
will be recognized or entertained by this Company. 

Messrs. Frick and Lauder, Mr. Carnegie’s representa- 
tive, refrained from voting because of their partnership 
in the steel company and the resolution was adopted by 
the votes of Messrs. Walker, Lynch and Bosworth, whose 
interests were in the coke company exclusively. 

223 


Frick the Man 


This action afforded Mr. Frick an opportunity to in- 
corporate in his “‘Minute’’ filed with the steel company, 
following Mr. Carnegie’s conversations in Pittsburgh, 
the following: 


I learn that Mr. Carnegie, while here, stated that I showed 
cowardice in not bringing up question of price of coke as between 
Steel and Coke Companies. It was not my business to bring that 
question up. He is in possession of the Minutes of the Board of 
Directors of the Frick Coke Company, giving their views of the 
attempt, on his part, to force them to take practically cost for 
their coke. 

It is the business of the Presidents of the two Companies to make 
contracts of all kinds. Mr. Carnegie has no authority to make a 
contract that would bind this Company. Neither have I any au- 
thority to make any contract that would bind the Frick Coke 
Company, and, at any rate, why should he, whose interest is larger 
in Steel than it is in Coke, insist on fixing the price which the Steel 
Company should pay for their coke? 

The Frick Coke Company has always been used as a convenience. 
The records will show that its credit has always been largely used 
for the Steel Company, and is to-day, to the extent of at least 
$6,000,000. The value of our coke properties, for over a year, has 
been, at every opportunity, depreciated by Mr. Carnegie and Mr. 
Lauder, and I submit that it is not unreasonable that I have con- 
siderable feeling on this subject. 

He also threatened, I am told, while here, that, if a low price 
did not prevail, or something was not done, he would buy twenty 
thousand acres of Washington Run coal and build coke ovens. 
That is to say, he threatened, if the minority stockholders would 
not give their share of the coke to the Steel Company at about 
cost, he would attempt to ruin them. | 


While Mr. Carnegie’s real attitude in those days was 
more frequently conjectural than assured, there seems to 
be no doubt that the quick change in his state of feeling 
toward Mr. Frick was caused by thisindignant ““Minute.”’ 
With respect, for example, to the very dispute out of 

224 


MR. AND MRS. H.C. FRICK MR. AND MRS. P. C. KNOX 
(On a holiday in Venice) 


Mr. Frick Receives His Resignation 


which the final rupture grew, we find him writing, just 
before the displeasing paper was filed, with all his for- 
mer sprightly and ingratiating pungency: 


There’s one question I wish you would fix up—coke prices. 
With market price 1.50 and idle ovens I think 1.35 is the fair price 
to C.S.Co. Now you said 1.35 was right. Surely you and Lauder 
and Lawrence can figure this out. The best plan is to get a fixed 
price for all time and relieve the friction which has arisen. 

Do get at this and fix it and always remember that none of your 
partners can or will regard you as only the representative of a seller 
company to them, they will not argue or object freely but they 
think all the same. None of them want to stir up things with F. & 
Co.—very foolish when its only business with nothing personal 
init. Isn’t it? Yet so it is. 

Do get at a permanent arrangement and greatly oblige. You 
want to make your pard a Christmas gift anyhow. I'll not look 
for a $40,000 thing. Give me a settlement permanent on coke and 
I'll bless you. 

yA Oe 

We never had friction before—it annoys me more than dollars— 

even than Phillippines. 


And then, a few days later, in reply apparently to a 
letter from Mr. Frick, not in evidence, noting an un- 
settled misunderstanding of precise terms: 


H.C.F., Esq. 

Excuse me, I have no time to waste upon the Prest. of the F.C. 
Co. who begins saying he didn’t know the bargain—that’s all I 
read—lIts gone to waste basket. It is all settled anyhow. Schwab 
writes me they are all willing to pay 1.35 permanently. I think its 
high. It is your own terms and ends it. 

My friend, you are so touchy upon F.C.Co. (fortunately the only 
point) you are, and we all have our ‘‘crazy bones’’—you know 
where Roslander, thanks to you for him, gets his finger sometimes 
and oh it hurts, doesn’t it? But now all’s over and you have a 
mighty good bargain and a big profit. I had no part fixing price. 


226 


Aone “il 29 Prick the Man big 


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This is all the Christmas gift Task. _ ak La 


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ae ‘obj ect had not yet felt th th 
sistible force. dalic senda 


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XVII 


The Final Dramatic Break 


R. Henry Cray Frick, Chairman of the H. 
C. Frick Coke Company and former Chair- 
man of the Carnegie Steel Company, Lim- 
ited, was seated at the desk in his private 
office in the Carnegie building at midday on January 
8th, 1900. He had finished dictating answers to various 
business communications and, having lighted a fresh 
cigar, was reading leisurely a personal letter from his 
friend, Mr. A. R. Whitney, who was then sojourning in 
Colorado Springs. Raising his eyes upon hearing the door 
open and close, he beheld without appearance of emotion 
the familiar figure of Mr. Andrew Carnegie poised at the 
entrance. Half rising, he stood in an attitude of expect- 
ancy while the unheralded visitor, with a cheery ‘‘Good 
morning, Mr. Frick,’’ stepped jauntily forward and, in 
response to a grave bow, placed himself gingerly upon 
the edge of a chair obviously assigned to callers. Having 
simultaneously resumed his own seat, Mr. Frick, with- 
out speaking, looked at him inquiringly. 

Mr. Carnegie readily announced his mission. He had 
dropped in to see if they could not reach a definite and 
final settlement of the coke dispute between their two 
companies. Personally, ashe had said overand overagain, 
he could perceive no reason why a satisfactory contract 

227 


Frick the Man 


should not be executed at once. The price had been agreed 
upon and he stood ready to close the matter and be done 
with it. 

“If you had stood by our arrangement originally,”’ 
quietly remarked Mr. Frick, *‘it would have been closed 
long ago.”’ 

Well, in the opinion of Mr. Carnegie, expressed with 
a hint of impatience, there was no use in going over all 
that. Let bygones be bygones! The present situation was 
the one to be considered. He had thought the matter out. 
In fact, he had decided upon a plan. $1.35 was mutually 
satisfactory. Very well, let it stand for two years. At the 
end of that time both parties would know whether they 
wanted to go on or to make other arrangements. Each 
could do what he liked. | 

The Steel Company must have coke of course. Every- 
body knew that. And it must take no chances. It must 
provide for all contingencies. But two years would afford 
ample time to acquire fifteen or twenty thousand acres 
of coal lands to be mined if necessary. That would be 
only prudent. The Coke Company too could make any 
provision for the future it saw fit. So the arrangement 
would be perfectly fair all around. 

‘Is that the contract you propose to have made?’ 
asked Mr. Frick. 

“It is perfectly fair; what do you say?”’ 

‘But if I object, it is your intention to put it through 
anyway?” 

‘That plan or something similar will undoubtedly be 
adopted. You may as well make up your mind to that.” 

228 


The Final Dramatic Break 


“Mr. Carnegie, would you like to sell your interest in 
the Coke Company at a price to be fixed by competent 
and disinterested business men? If so, I will buy it.”’ 

‘I will have nothing to do with outsiders.”’ 

“Will you buy my interest in the Steel Company at 
a price to be fixed in the same way? If so, you can have 
rh 

‘Nothing to do with outsiders. Never have had. If 
the company wants to take over your interest, the way 
is provided and you have signed for it.”’ 

‘At the sum appearing on the books, you mean, with- 
out regard to its actual value?’ 

‘As provided by the contract.”’ 

“And if Ido not accept your proposed agreement be- 
tween the two companies, or whatever else you may 
suggest, you intend to take over my interest in the way 
you have indicated?’ 

“It’s not my business; it’s the company’s.”’ 

‘And the company will try to do it?’ 

“Why not? The company has the right.”’ 

“And you will advise the company to exercise its 
power?” 

“Your interest will surely be taken over by the com- 
pany; you can depend on that.”’ 

The colloquy had been carried on thus far,— by Mr. 
Frick in notably distinct but even tones, by Mr. Carne- 
gie toward the end impatiently. There was nothing more 
to be said by way of explanation. The case was closed, 
the verdict rendered. Mr. Frick looked long and intently 
into Mr. Carnegie’s defiant eyes while, one cannot doubt, 

229 


Frick the Man 


the steel was creeping slowly into his own. Then, speak- 
ing still evenly but with steadily rising inflection, “‘his 
anger,’’ writes Mr. Bridge in his History of the Carnegie 
Steel Company, “‘burst out into flame,’’ and his pent-up 
indignation was finding full vent when Mr. Carnegie, 
who had been edging toward the door, suddenly hastened 
his steps and dashed into the hall, closely followed by 
Mr. Frick. 

During the ensuing nineteen years, from 1900 to 1919, 
when both passed away, the elder in August and the 
younger in December, neither Mr. Carnegie nor Mr. 
Frick spoke to the other. 

Mr. Frick returned to his desk, teckel at his watch, 
reverted to his custom of clearing his desk before lunch- 
eon, rang for his secretary and dictated a reply to Mr. 
Whitney, whose letter he had been reading when inter- 
rupted, in the course of which he said incidentally: 

Everything here moving along very pleasantly. All concerns are 
making money and the outlook is quite bright for the coming year 


along all lines. I hope that this will find your daughter much 
improved. 


Five minutes later Mr. Carnegie, appearing distressed, 
entered the Board room of the Carnegie Company and 
directed his associates awaiting him to proceed with the 
work in hand. 

On his way back to his office from luncheon at the 
club, Mr. Frick dropped in on his old friend and asso- 
ciate Mr. John Walker. 

‘John,’ he remarked meditatively, ‘I lost my temper 
this morning.”’ 

230 


The Final Dramatic Break 


“Oh, well,’ smilingly observed Mr. Walker,‘‘I knew 
you had one.”’ 

‘For the first time in years.”’ 

‘Washington lost his once, you know. Carnegie, I 
suppose. Proceed.”’ 

Whereupon Mr. Frick depicted the episode in detail 
and quietly awaited comment. 

“All right!’ ejaculated Mr. Walker. ‘“That will clear 
the air. We shall soon be out in the open now. It is high 
time.”’ 

They had not long to wait. The month intervening 
between December 5th, when Mr. Carnegie obtained Mr. 
Frick’s resignation, and January 8th, when he reappeared 
in Pittsburgh, had been one of ominous silence on the 
part of the controlling owner and of anxious waiting by 
his partners. Only Mr. Carnegie himself could tell where 
the next blow would fall or what its nature might be, 
and he confided in none of his associates barring possibly 
his cousin, Mr. Lauder, his oldest comrade, Mr. Phipps, 
and his most valued manager, Mr. Schwab, having al- 
ready revealed their lack of sympathy with his pro- 
gramme by pleading with him to refrain from taking the 
first step. 

On Sunday, December 3rd, with the acquiescence of 
Mr. Phipps, the following communication from Mr. 
Schwab was delivered to Mr. Frick: 


My dear Mr. Frick: 

I write you confidentially. I just returned from New York this 
morning. Mr. Carnegie is en route to Pittsburgh today—and will 
be at the offices in the morning. Nothing could be done with him 
looking towards a reconciliation. He seems most determined. I 


231 


Frick the Man 


did my best. So did Mr. Phipps. I feel certain he will give positive 
instructions to the Board and Stockholders as to his wishes in this 
matter. I have gone into the matter carefully and am advised by 
disinterested and good authority that, by reason of his interest, he 
can regulate this matter to suit himself—with much trouble no 
doubt, but he can ultimately do so. 

I believe all the Junior members of the board and all the Junior 
Partners will do as he directs. Any concerted action would be ulti- 
mately useless and result in their down-fall. Am satisfied that no 
action on my part would have any effect in the end. We must de- 
clare ourselves. Under these circumstances there is nothing left for 
us to do than to obey, although the situation the Board is thus 
placed in is most embarrassing. 

Mr. Carnegie will no doubt see you in the morning and I appeal 
to you to sacrifice considerable if necessary to avert this crisis. I 
could say much on this subject but you understand and it is un- 
necessary. Personally my position is most embarrassing as you well 
know. My long association with you and your kindly and generous 
treatment of me makes it very hard to act as I shall be obliged to 

do. But I cannot possibly see any good to you or any one else by 
doing otherwise. It would probably ruin me and not help you. 
Of this as above stated I am well advised by one most friendly to 
you. I beg of you for myself and for all the Junior Partners, to avoid 
putting me in this awkward position, if possible and consistent. 

I write you this instead of telling you because I cannot under 
the circumstances well discuss this subject with you at this time, 
and I wanted you to know before tomorrow. Please consider con- 


fidential for the present, and believe me 
As Ever 


C.M.S. 

This was a fair warning which was heeded by Mr. Frick, 
partly no doubt in consideration of the perplexities of 
others, to the extent at least of acceding to Mr. Car- 
negie’s demand for his resignation without protest or 
argument. But the indirect effect upon Mr. Carnegie 
himself was to strengthen his confidence that he could 
safely ignore his junior partners, whom he had terror- 

232 


The Final Dramatic Break 


ized, his senior partners, whom he mistakenly thought 
he had cowed and, last but far from least, the Company’s 
distinguished counsel, Knox and Reed, who refused to 
appear in any legal proceedings against Mr. Frick. 

Calling other lawyers into service, he perfected his 
plans during that holiday month and, when he reap- 
peared before the Board, he felt fully equipped to meet 
any contingency. Clearly, to his mind, his recent experi- 
ence left no alternative to proceeding to the extreme limit 
_ of possibilities, namely, to eject Mr. Frick from partner- 
ship and forcibly seize his interest at virtually whatever 
price he himself might see fit to pay. 

All this Mr. Carnegie seems to have believed he could 
do legally under the terms of various agreements and he 
proceeded forthwith to execute his purpose. 

At the annual meeting of the stockholders of the H. 
C. Frick Coke Company, on the following day, the num- 
ber of directors was increased from five to seven; Messrs. 
Frick, Lynch and Lauder were re-elected, Messrs. Walker 
and Bosworth were dropped and Messrs. Gayley, More- 
land, Clemson and Motrison, to whose names qualifying 
shares had been transferred by the Steel Company, were 
chosen; giving the Carnegie interests control by a major- 
ity of three. Mr. Lynch was continued as President and 
the office of Chairman, previously held by Mr. Frick, 
was abolished by unanimous consent. 

The only significance of this action, barring of course 
the change in control, lay in the dropping of Mr. John 
Walker, who was not only the largest stockholder hav- 
ing no interest in the Steel Company but was guardian of 

233 


Frick the Man 


Andrew Carnegie Wilson, a minor who had inherited his 
share of Mr. Carnegie’s deceased partner, whose widow 
and daughter he also represented. In view of these circum- 
stances and of the common knowledge that Mr. Carnegie 
and Mr. Walker had been on friendly terms for years, the 
exclusion of the latter from the Board caused surprise. 

Presently, however, the fact transpired that, in the 
course of the recent interview between the two, Mr. 
Walker had rejected Mr. Carnegie’s proposal that he ex- 
change his coke stock for an interest’ in the steel firm and 
a position on the Board, feeling that such an act would 
constitute a betrayal of Mr. Frick, who alone had tried 
to protect the minority stockholders. Subsequently, 
moreover, when assured that Mr. Carnegie would guar- 
antee full recompense in some form for any loss to his 
personal interests if he would withdraw his opposition 
to the coke contract which he had voted to repudiate, 
he had spurned the suggestion with words that virtually 
enforced his deposition by Mr. Carnegie and added an- 
other doughty foe to the latter’s swelling galaxy of 
adversaries. 

Immediately following its organization on the same 
day, the new Board voted—five to two—to rescind the 
resolution of October 25th denying the existence of a 
contract to deliver coke to the Carnegie Steel Company 
at $1.35 per ton, and, two weeks later, on January 24th, 
adopted the following resolution, over the protests of 
Mr. Frick and President Lynch: 


Whereas this Company acting by H.C. Frick, then chairman of 
the Board of Directors in December, 1898, entered into an agree- 


234 


The Final Dramatic Break 


ment with the Carnegie Steel Co. (Ltd.), whereby this Company 
agreed to sell and Steel Company agreed to purchase all the coke 
required for the furnaces of said Steel Company for the period of 
five years, beginning January 1, 1899, at the price of $1.35 per ton 
of 2,000 pounds delivered f.0.b. cars at oven, payable on or before 
the 2oth day of each month for the preceding month’s shipment, 
and pursuant to said agreement the shipment of coke began Jan- 
uary 1, 1899; and 

Whereas said agreement, though acted upon by the parties, was 
never formerly set forth in writing. 

Resolved, That the said agreement be, and the same is hereby, 
ratified and confirmed as fully and completely as if the same had 
been originally entered into under authority of a resolution of this 
Board, and the officers of this Company are hereby authorized and 
directed to reduce said agreement to writing, and to execute and 
deliver the same in the name and on the behalf of this Company, 
taking effect as of January 1, 1899. 


A proposed contract with the Carnegie Steel Company, 
embodying the terms recited and already executed by 
President Schwab was then submitted and President 
Lynch, by direction of the Board, executed it under 
protest. 

It is interesting, at this point, to note that if Mr. Car- 
negie had not insisted originally that his understanding 
with Mr. Frick comprehended the inclusion of a clause 
giving the steel company the advantage of a lower price 
if such should appear ‘“‘at the market,’’—a provision 
which he now abandoned— the contract would have been 
executed at the time for a period of five years, and the 
Coke Company would then have been forfeiting to the 
Steel Company the difference between $1.35 and the mar- 
ket price of $3.50 per ton, or $2.15 0m 2,500,000 tons, no 
less than $5,375,000 a year. 

235 


ae * cee < 


however, need not tbe considered se phy 


“ 


ae pr ea ci a: Cay Seale aia come 
racrwedh weeks 


3 Ps. aN Tg se bss ea) ES mae Mek: Nas 


XVIII 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


AVING been thus quietly ousted from the 

Chairmanship of both companies, Mr. Frick 

no longer had a voice in the management of 

either. To make the severance complete, how- 
ever, it was incumbent upon Mr.Carnegie to acquire his 
23 per cent of stock in the Coke Company and his one- 
sixth interest in the steel firm. 

There seemed to be no insuperable obstacle in the way. 
Mr. Frick was as eager to sell as Mr. Carnegie was will- 
ing to buy. His holdings in the two concerns constituted 
the bulk, although not the sum total, of his fortune, 
which he naturally desired to keep within his own con- 
trol for investment in enterprises, the management of 
which he would share. There was no question of his 
full ownership of his coke stock for which he stood 
ready to accept any price fixed by disinterested persons 
as its fair value. 

His title to his interest in the Steel Company, also fully 
paid for, was equally clear but the holding itself, Mr. 
Carnegie maintained, was subject to recapture by the 
Company for the sum at which it was carried on the books 
at the time. The difference between this price and the 
actual value, asappraised by disinterested persons, which 
Mr. Frick offered to accept, was very large. The “‘book 

237 


Frick the Man 


value’ of his one-sixth interest, as determined by Mr. 
Carnegie, was ‘‘approximately $4,900,000°’; his own esti- 
mate of its real value was‘ ‘upwards of $15,000,000 '; two 
years later, following transformation through the new 
Carnegie Company, it was exchanged for securities of the 
United States Steel Corporation having a market value 
at the time of not less than $25,000,000. 

Although nobody foresaw this quick quintupling, all 
realized that the amount of money involved in the con- 
troversy could not be less than six millions of dollars 
and might easily prove to be twice that sum. 

While the representatives of the Steel Company were 
assuming control of the Coke Company and ratifying as 
a valid contract the tentative verbal arrangement made 
by Messrs. Carnegie and Frick thirteen months previ- 
ously, Mr. Carnegie was personally directing the recap- 
ture by his Board of Managers of Mr. Frick’s interest in 
the steel partnership. 

The procedure was based upon the following clause in 
an‘‘Iron-clad Agreement’’ signed by Mr. Frick and other 
members of the firm under date of July rst, 1892: 

This agreement, Made this first day of July, A.D., 1892, and on 
certain dates thereafter, as shown, between The Carnegie Steel 
Company, Limited, party of the first part, and each one of the 
members of that Association who has hereunto affixed his name, 
party of the second part, witnesseth: 

(1) That the party of the second part, for and in consideration 
of the execution and delivery of this agreement by each of the 
other active members of said Association, The Carnegie Steel Com- 
pany, Limited, and in consideration of the sum of One Dollar in 


hand paid by the party of the first part, the receipt whereof, by the 
signing hereof, is hereby acknowledged, as well as for other good 


238 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


and valuable considerations, to him moving, does hereby cove- 
nant, promise and agree to and with the party of the first part, 
that he, the party of the second part, at any time hereafter when 
three-fourths in number of the persons holding interests in said 
first party, and three-fourths in value of said interests, shall re- 
quest him, the said party of the second part, to do so, will sell, 
assign and transfer to said first party, or to such person or persons 
as it shall designate, all of his, the said party of the second part, 
interest in the Limited partnership of The Carnegie Steel Company, 
Limited. The interest shall be assigned freed from all liens and en- 
cumbrances or contracts of any kind, and this transfer shall at once 
terminate all the interest of said party of the second part in and in 
connection with the said The Carnegie Steel Company, Limited. 

CII) The request of the requisite number of members and value 
of interests shall be evidenced by a writing signed by them or their 
proper agents or Attorneys in Fact; and a copy thereof shall be 
either served upon the party whose interest it is proposed to buy, 
or mailed to him at his post office address; at least five (5) days 
before the day fixed in said request to make said transfer and 
assignment. 

CID The party of the first part covenants and agrees that it will 
pay unto the party so selling and assigning, the value of the in- 
terest assigned, as it shall appear to be on the books of said The 
Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, on the first day of the month 
following said assignment. 

Said payment shall be in manner as follows: 

If the interest assigned shall exceed four (4) per centum, but 
shall not exceed twenty (20) per centum of the Capital Stock at 
par, then the same shall be paid for as follows: One-fourth cash 
within six months after the date of the assignment, and the balance 
in five equal annual payments from the date of the assignment, to 
be evidenced by the notes of said party. 

CIV) This agreement, and the option the party of the second 
part hereby gives to the party of the first part, is hereby declared 
to be irrevocable, and that it may be carried out in good faith, and 
notwithstanding any effort on the part of the party of the second 
part to evade it, the party of the second part does hereby appoint 
the person, who, at the time he is called upon to act, is Chairman 
of the party of the first part, the Attorney in Fact for said party of 


#38 


Frick the Man 


the second part, for him and in his name, place and stead to assign 
and transfer the said interest in said The Carnegie Steel Company, 
Limited, whenever under this agreement it would be the duty of 
said party of the second part to do so. 


Application of this method of recapture would have 
resulted in payments by the company to Mr. Frick as 
follows: On or before September 1st, 1900, $1,225,000; 
On March 1st, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904 and 1905, each, 
an instalment of $735,000; total, $4,900,000, a sum prac- 
tically certain to be exceeded materially by the profits 
accruing during that period to the credit of the one- 
sixth share, which consequently would have paid for 
itself, with a net gain to Mr. Carnegie, as the holder of 
a Majority interest, of many millions. 

In point of fact, the net earnings upon Mr. Frick’s 
one-sixth interest, in that very year of 1900 alone, sur- 
passed the ‘‘book value’’ of $4,900,000 by $1,766,666. 

Technically, however, though hardly perhaps in fair- 
ness, this extraordinary circumstance had no bearing 
upon the question at issue. Either the company had or 
had not a legal right to appropriate the share upon 
the terms specified in the option quoted, when three 
Iron-clad Agreements, each differing from the others, 
were really involved. Of these the first was between Car- 
negie Brothers & Co., a constituent concern, since liqui- 
dated, and its partners, executed on September 1st, 1887; 
the second was between its successor, the Carnegie Steel 
Company, Limited, and some of its partners, dated July 
1st, 1892, and signed by Mr. Frick and others but never 
executed by several, including Messrs. Carnegie, Phipps 

240 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


and Lauder; and the third was of the same parties, dated 
September 1st, 1897, but executed by Mr. Carnegie alone. 

To recapture Mr. Frick’s interest at‘‘book value’’ and 
obtain legal title, it was considered necessary prelimi- 
narily (1) To abrogate the resolution of 1897; (2) To re- 
vive the original agreement of Carnegie Brothers & Co., 
of 1887, bearing the signatures of all the partners, thus 
establishing mutuality of benefit and obligation; G) To 
validate the agreement of 1892, signed in part only, in 
order to obtain Mr. Frick’s signature and (4) To obtain 
additional signatures to this agreement in order to pro- 
vide the *‘three-fourths in number’’as well as the‘ ‘three- 
fourths in value’ required to take over the interest desired. 

Resolutions designed to accomplish these purposes 
were produced by Mr. Carnegie immediately following 
the conclusion of his spirited interview with Mr. Frick 
on January 8th, and were promptly adopted by the 
Board of Managers. The resolution of 1897 was rescinded, 
the original agreement of 1887 was recognized simply as 
“appearing in the Minutes’’of an unidentified company, 
the agreement of 1892 was referred to for the first time 
as “‘Supplemental’’ instead of the entirely new partner- 
ship compact which previously it had been considered 
to be, and the secretary was instructed to obtain all sig- 
natures not yet attached to the document. 

All of these except Mr. Henry Phipps’s and Mr. A. R. 
Whitney's having been secured readily, Mr. Carnegie, 
either thinking that the task would be distasteful to 
Secretary Lovejoy, who was not in sympathy with the 
movement, or surmising that President Schwab would 

241 


Frick the Man 


speak more influentially as his personal representative, 
deputed the latter to obtain the three-fourths required 
for the formal demand and, on January 15th, the fol- 
lowing notice was served on Mr. Frick: 


Under the provisions of a certain Agreement between The Car- 
negie Steel Company, Limited, and the partners composing it, 
known as and generally referred to as the ‘‘Iron Clad’’ Agreement, 
we, the undersigned, being three-fourths in number of the persons 
holding interests in said Association, and three-fourths in value 
of said interests, do now hereby request Henry C. Frick to sell, 
assign and transfer to The Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, all 
of his interest in the capital of The Carnegie Steel Company, 
Limited, said transfer to be made as at the close of Business Jan- 
uary 31, 1900, and to be paid for as provided in said Agreement. 


Messrs. Phipps and Frick, having already protested 
separately at the action of the Board on January 8th, 
joined in notifying the company that the “fair and true 
value” of its properties was not shown on its books, ex- 
pressing their belief that it exceeded “considerably” 
$250,000,000 and declaring their willingness to accept 
the appraisal of three disinterested men as “final and con- 
clusive.’’ Receipt of these communications was not ac- 
knowledged, and on February 1st, the following letter 
was delivered by hand: 

Mr. H. C. Frick, 
Building. 
Dear Sir: 

I beg to advise you that pursuant to the terms of the so called 
‘Tron-clad Agreement’’ and at the request of the Board of Man- 
agers, I have to-day acting as your Attorney in Fact executed and 
delivered to The Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, a transfer of 
your interest in the capital of said Company. 


Yours truly, 
C. M. Scuwas. 


242 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


The stage was now set for trial of the most famous 
lawsuit ever brought in Pennsylvania. There had been 
a sharp competition for the services of John G. Johnson, 
Esq., the foremost lawyer of the country, as senior coun- 
sel, but Mr. Frick’s retainer was the first to arrive. 
The great man’s distinguished associates were Esquires 
D. D. Watson and Willis F. McCook. Mr. Carnegie’s 
solicitors were Esquires George Tucker Bispham, Rich- 
ard C. Dale, Clarence Burleigh and the firm of Dalzell, 
Scott & Gordon. 

Mr. Frick’s Bill of Complaint in his Equity Suit against 
the Steel Company and its shareholders and the joint and 
several answer of the defendants headed by Mr. Carnegie 
were filed with the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny 
County promptly upon the opening of the Spring term 
early in March. Eleven years later, in his testimony before 
a Congressional Committee, Judge Reed of Knox & Reed, 
the company’s attorneys who had refused to represent 
their most affluent client in any legal proceedings against 
Mr. Frick, set forth tersely the main point at issue. 

‘“The fundamental question in the case,’’ he informed 
the committee, “was whether Mr. Frick could be put 
out at all under the agreement. The next question was, 
how much was his interest worth? The attorneys who 
drew this answer—I had nothing to do with it—drew it 
with the main object in view, namely, to show that Mr. 
Frick, as one of a committee, had fixed his own valuation 
and was committed to it. How they found that I do not 
know. I hate to say it, but they stated rather carelessly 
that it was a full and accurate value of the assets when 

243 


y Frick the Man 


they should have said that it was a full and accurate ac- 
count of the method adopted by the parties.”’ 

‘Do you understand it, Judge?’ asked Congressman 
Gardner. 

‘‘Sometimes I think I do and sometimes that I do not. 
I do not know what they did with the profits except that 
I think they depreciated things to about the extent of 
the profits and never allowed their book values to rise 
atalli® 

“Let me tell you, gentlemen,’’ interjected Mr. Car- 
negie with rare insouciance, “‘since you have mentioned 
the name of Mr. Frick, that the quarrel was not between 
us. I never had a quarrel with Mr. Frick in my life. It 
was with the partners he quarreled. I tried to go in and 
settle it.” 

Asked how he personally accounted for the assertion 
in his sworn Answer to the Bill that the “book value”’ 
of the entire assets of the company was “‘full, fair and 
accurate,’’ Mr. Carnegie replied: 


Mr. Carnecie. As to the value of our property, No. Everything 
I have said here shows you that the property did not go into that 
account at all. 

Mr. Brat. Then this statement in this answer, as you under- 
stand it now, is not a correct statement? 

Mr. Carneciez. It is misleading. 

Mr. Brat. It is a misleading statement? 

Mr. Carnecte. Surely. 

Mr. Beat. Can you not go further than that and say that it is 
an incorrect statement? 

Mr. Carneaiz. Yes; certainly it is an incorrect statement. Have 
you any doubt about it yourself? (Laughter). 

Mr. Beat. Not at all. 


244 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


Tue CHatrMan. It is sworn to. 

Mr. CarneciE. Yes. 

THe CHairMaNn. By you? 

Mr. Carneciz. Yes. My partners sent this on as an answer 
prepared by our lawyers. I no doubt glanced over it and signed it, 
but I did not read it all. 

There was no casualness in the preparation of the brief 
for the plaintiff. Mr. Frick gave his undivided attention 
to the matter, not only gathering the data required down 
to the minutest detail but sifting and analyzing it with 
the painstaking thoroughness of a trained mind; inviting 
and even suggesting innumerable questions for himself 
to answer; proposing lines of bold attack supported by 
factsand arguments; and generally laying a broad founda- 
tion for comprehensive presentation of a case punctuated 
and enlivened by severe and caustic phrasing of his own 
devising. 

The purely legal aspects of the controversy hardly call 
for consideration in view of their failure to attain judi- 
cial determination, but if Mr. Carnegie had thought to 
intimidate Mr. Frick into full submission, in line with 
the tender of his resignation without a protest, his hope 
was rudely dispelled by this defiant and scornful atti- 
tude, and his feelings were deeply hurt. 

‘Frick has filed an abusive Bill against me,’’ he con- 
fided to Mr. Elbert H.Gary on a railway train, ‘‘and here 
is the reply which I want you to read.”’ 

‘I did soat once,’ Judge Gary told his own biographer, 
‘‘and found that Mr. Carnegie had excoriated Mr. Frick 
in violent language. I advised him not to file that reply; 
it was too abusive. Mr. Carnegie was plainly disappointed, 

245 


Frick the Man 


for he believed he had done a fine thing, but he agreed 
to show the paper to his counsel, and it was never filed 
in that form.”’ 

Simultaneously with the filing of Mr. Carnegie’s An- 
swer in Part I of the Court of Common Pleas appeared 
the Bill of Complaint in the coke suit of his lifelong 
friend and associate, the redoubtable Mr. John Walker, 
in Part II. Compared with the scathing terms of this 
grim indictment, Mr. Frick’s denunciation was less per- 
sonal and almost indulgent. Contemptuously depicting 
the added directors as mere tools of their master, desig- 
nated and qualified by him to act in his interest, in “utter 
and fraudulent disregard’’ of the rights of the minority 
stockholders, Mr. Walker pinned the entire responsibil- 
ity upon Mr. Carnegie personally for “‘the execution of 
their evil design to cheat and defraud, not honestly 
or in good faith for the Coke Company but dishonestly 
and in bad faith for the benefit of said Carnegie,’’ thereby 
becoming “‘guilty not only of constructive but also of 
actual fraud.”’ 

Since it was obviously “‘vain and useless’’ to look to 
such ‘‘representatives of the Steel Company and Carnegie 
for any redress for the aforesaid wrongs and grievances,’ 
Mr. Walker, on his own behalf and as guardian of Andrew 
Carnegie Wilson, was driven to pray the Honorable Judges 
for equitable relief. 

While these blunt accusations from such a source made 
highly unpleasant reading, particularly when spread 
over the first pages of the newspapers, yet another defec- 
tion, although relatively unimportant, bore perhaps even 

246 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


greater significance to Mr. Carnegie’s mind. All but two 
of the junior or ‘‘debtor’’ partners accepted Mr. Schwab's 
judgment that Mr. Carnegie could, and ‘‘would prob- 
ably,’’ ruin them if they should disobey his orders, and 
bowed submissively, but of these two one was Mr. F. T. 
F. Lovejoy, Secretary of the company, who was more 
familiar with the intricacies of the various Iron-clad 
Agreements than anybody else and had served as special 
counsellor to the controlling owner in constructing and 
interpreting them. 

While acting under instructions to make a thorough 
investigation of the proposed Agreement of 1897 with a 
view to perfecting it in every detail, he was informed by 
the company’s attorneys that, to make it legally bind- 
ing beyond question, it would be necessary to give to 
each shareholder the privilege of taking up his interest 
for cash and to secure the signature of every partner 
without exception in order to establish full mutuality 
of the pledge to surrender an interest upon demand. The 
latter requirement was supposed to have been met in the 
original Agreement of 1887, but inquiry developed the 
fact that the name of Mr. Vandevort was not appended. 
Mr. Frick promptly apprized Mr. Carnegie, who was then 
in Scotland, of this fatal defect. 

“The fact is,’’ he wrote on June roth, 1898, ‘‘that the 
present Iron-clad Agreement (that of 1892, unsigned by 
Mr. Phipps and dependent for validity upon assumed 
continuance of the Agreement of 1887) is not binding on 
anybody and never has been; while we have purchased in- 
terests of deceased partners under it, if objection had been 

247 


Frick the Man 


raised by their estates, it could not have been enforced.”’ 

But time was pressing, owing to the imminence of a 
conference at Skibo Castle designed to win Mr. Phipps’s 
assent to the new Agreement, and Mr. Lovejoy had 
drawn a paper, for the debtor partners to sign, fully coy- 
ering the point, and a copy was enclosed ‘‘for your con- 
sideration and FOR MR. PHIPPS'S CONSIDERATION. 

No cablegram being received in response, however, no 
further step was taken and Mr. Frick sailed, as planned, 
to find awaiting him at Liverpool the following commu- 
nication: 


Sx1s0 CastLz, Dornoca, N.B. 


My dear Mr. Frick, 27th June, 1898. 


Just occurs to me perhaps much better not to talk over new Iron- 
clad Agreement until Squire (Mr. Phipps) comes here with you. 

I do not agree that the present one is not binding,—better avoid 
that point. 

The Squire and Mr. Curry expect to come up here with you. 
We are looking forward with the greatest pleasure to the arrival 
of you all. 


7 Hastily yours 
H. C. Frick, Esq., ANDREW CARNEGIE. 
White Star S.S.“‘Germanic,"’ 
Liverpool. 


The intimation was plain that Mr. Phipps was to be 
kept in ignorance of Mr. Lovejoy’s discovery that he 
was not, as he had been led to believe, bound by his sig- 
nature to the 1887 Agreement,—at least until he could 
be induced to accept the new one which superseded it. 
But the precaution was to no purpose. Mr. Phipps could 
not be persuaded to sign. 

Although Mr. Lovejoy, in common with the other 
junior partners, invited the loss of fortune foreseen by 

248 


a) Oe a 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


Mr. Schwab if he should disobey Mr. Carnegie’s orders, 
he could not conscientiously join with his fellow man- 
agers in an effort to enforce an agreement which the dis- 
tinguished counsel of the company had pronounced in- 
valid, calling for the resignation of Mr. Frick and pro- 
viding for recapture of his interest ‘‘for a consideration 
virtually nominal.’’ Consequently he resigned as Man- 
ager and Secretary and filed a separate Bill setting forth 
that the agreement was ‘‘null and void,”’ that ‘‘even if it 
were in full force and effect, no cause existed for the plain- 
tiff’s expulsion’ and that, in any event, “‘justice and 
equity required that he should not be compelled to accept 
such payment as the purchasers themselves might fix.”’ 

However grieved he may have been by this singular 
action on the part of a junior partner whose fortune, he 
considered, was attributable to his own generosity, Mr. 
Carnegie not only betrayed no resentment but was so 
deeply impressed by Mr. Lovejoy’s legal opinion, based 
upon the defect in the original agreement discovered and 
reported nearly two years previously, that, having com- 
missioned an associate to make, on his own account, 
tentative advances looking toa settlement, he advertised 
indifference by going to Florida. 

In vain. Mr. Frick continued imperturbable, Mr. Walker 
implacable, Mr. Lovejoy undisturbed, Messrs. Knox & 
Reed courteously aloof and the renowned Esquire John- 
son smilingly unapproachable. Mr. Carnegie returned. 

It was an anomalous situation. The Carnegie Steel 
Company was piling up profits at an undreamed-of rate 
but its prestige was diminishing, its superb organization 

249 


Frick the Man 


was quaking, its rivals were chortling, bankers were 
beginning to look askance, customers were showing 
signs of dismay, and rumors were rife of prospective dis- 
closures compelling governmental rending of the very 
foundations of its industrial supremacy. Clearly, all con- 
cerned, from the most affluent shareholder to the hum- 
blest yet highly prosperous wage-earner, had everything 
to lose and nothing to gain from protraction of the bitter 
struggle between its masterful guiding spirits. Again 
with the full acquiescence of Mr. Frick, and undismayed 
by his recent failure, Mr. Phipps intervened. 

Nobody living was so well fitted for the role of peace- 
maker as he; none other could have appealed so effec- 
tively to the sentimental side of Mr. Carnegie’s better 
nature; none could meet him on the same level; the two 
had toiled shoulder to shoulder as partners for nearly 
forty years and had shared a prosperity far surpassing 
any registered in the dreams of either; each admired and 
respected the other; between them was no jealousy; their 
friendship had never been seriously shaken; they were 
growing old. 

There was a touch of pathos in the meeting. They were 
still ‘‘Harry’’and‘*Andrew’’to each other, but for how 
long? Appearances had been safeguarded scrupulously. 
Mr. Carnegie had shown, perhaps had felt, no resent- 
ment at what he must have considered a personal defec- 
tion and Mr. Phipps had confined the protest which he 
felt bound to make to the smallest formal compass. The 
public detected no more than a difference in judgment; 
their associates, with minds possessed by self interest, 

250 


——— 


AT THE AGE OF FORTY-FIVE 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


prudently perceived nothing. But the two concerned knew 
that at last a rift was opening which must be closed quick- 
ly or it would widen beyond possibility of repair. The 
one must have been as surely conscious as the other was 
clearly aware of the entrance into their relationship of 
the fatal element of mistrust. 

Mr. Phipps was not accustomed to champion the causes 
of others in public; privately, with Mr. Schwab, he had 
urged upon Mr. Carnegie the unwisdom of deposing Mr. 
_ Frick as Manager, but he seems to have raised no objection 
when he heard the controlling owner direct his Board to 
demand the Chairman’s resignation; that was not his 
affair. Nor was Mr. Frick’s suit at law; he had not 
sought an interview to discuss the merits of that; his 
grievance was his own, as he had indicated plainly to 
Mr. Frick himself, and it was based, not upon legal rights, 
but upon personal honor, mutual friendship and identical 
interests. 

He had signed the original Iron-clad Agreement of 
1887 most reluctantly and only upon the definite under- 
standing that it “‘should apply only to debtor partners 
or employés’’ and under no circumstances to those class- 
ified as ‘Senior Partners’’ who had bought and paid for 
their shares. 

“Of course,’ he added in a memorandum filed with 
Mr. Frick on January 17th, 1900, when the latter was 
threatened with ejectment and partial confiscation of his 
interest, ‘‘much was left to the honor of the Managers, 
in whom it was not unreasonable for me to impose im- 
plicit confidence, and I am confident that the agreement 

251 


Frick the Man 


would never have been made an engine of oppression and 
robbery.”’ 

A second time, in 1892, ‘‘when the consolidation papers 
were agreed to by Mr. Carnegie and me at his place near 
Windsor, England,” he received personal reassurance to 
the same effect with respect to ‘the intent of the paper 
of 1887.”’ | 

Still further confirmation of Mr. Carnegie’s commit- 
ment to this view was afforded by both word and deed 
of Mr. Carnegie himself in 1897, when he began a letter 
designed to allay Mr. Phipps’s apprehensions respecting 
the proposed new Agreement with these words: 


My Dear Pard: a dade 554s 


Surely you are a little “‘off.”’ 

I know of no reason why the Iron-clad is not pleasing to you. 

Did you not suggest that the power to expel should not apply 
to such as own their interests, and hasn’t your wish been granted? 

Mr. Phipps discovered upon examining the revised 
document that his desire to have the restriction to debtor 
partners clearly specified instead of being left indefinitely 
a matter of honor between partners had, indeed, been 
heeded, the‘ ‘party of the second part” being explicitly 


designated as an ‘‘active member of the Association — 


whenever, and at any time he shall be indebted in any 
sum to The Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, or to any 
member thereof for the purchase of Capital in said Asso- 
ciation, thus relieving all actual owners from any com- 
mitment whatever. 

This clause Mr. Phipps found wholly satisfactory and 
most comforting. His refusal to sign the last Agreement 

252 


oe oe 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


of 1897, executed by the company and by Mr. Carnegie 
alone of all the partners, and rescinded by the latter’s 
direction on the memorable 8th of January, was based 
upon other grounds. 

“I replied,’ Mr. Phipps continued in his Memoran- 
dum to Mr. Frick, ‘‘that there were clauses in the agree- 
ment that were unjust, and he replied ‘Harry, Iam ill, and 
am going abroad, and fix it to your satisfaction’—On 
such a promise, so clear and explicit, I would have done 
anything for my friend, and especially in his condition.”’ 

‘I am very sorry to say,’ he concluded mournfully, 
“that since then he has shown no willingness to correct 
the agreement as promised.”’ 

Mr. Phipps carried out the plan of the interview pre- 
cisely as agreed upon by Mr. Frick and himself. He 
scrupulously refrained from uttering a word that might 
give cause for offense but he spoke with a frankness equiva- 
lent to his friendliness. For himself, he had burned his 
bridges; there had been nothing else to do in justice to 
himself and his family; if one owner’s interest could be 
seized by the company at fictitious book value, another's 
could be; continued possession of his own would be a 
matter, not of right, but of favor. Personal altercations 
between partners he viewed only with deep regret; he 
had never engaged in one; he never should; but it was 
only fair to say that Mr. Frick and himself had confided 
fully in each other from necessity in mutual defense. 

He frankly accepted the responsibility for suggesting 
that Mr. Frick search the records of the settlement with 
Superintendent Abbott and Mr. Frick had done so and 

253 


Frick the Man 


had found in a letter addressed to him in Mr. Carnegie’s 
own handwriting these words: 


Mr. Abbott came from Washington to see me as his friend. 

He thought that if he retired his half was worth far more than 
the books and I could not say otherwise. 

I said of course it was worth 20% more than the books and if he 
decided to retire and sell, Ishould see he got that for it. 


And he got it and, by seeing that he did, Mr. Carnegie 
had upheld the very principle for which Mr. Frick and 
he were contending. Mr. Carnegie had forgotten all about 
this act of generosity, no doubt, as he had forgotten 
many other kindnesses of like nature, but there stood 
the admission. It might or might not have legal effect; 
but, to his mind, it surely did have moral force which 
no honorable man could, and he did not believe Mr. Car- 
negie would, ignore. 

While plainly surprised at this bit of information, Mr. 
Carnegie welcomed the opportunity to respond to his 
lifelong associate's freshening of their friendship and 
his reiteration of faith in himself. 

‘‘Make your own plan, Harry,’ he finally said, ‘‘I only 
want what is fair.”’ 

So the interview ended to mutual satisfaction and Mr. 
Phipps immediately reported to Mr. Frick, whose sole 
comment was: 

“It is useless now to talk about anybody buying or 
selling. The fair thing to do is to make the consolidation 
of the two companies upon the terms agreed to by every- 
body a year ago before the Moore offer was received. 
That will solve the whole problem justly and honestly. 
Tam willing.”’ 

254 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


At a meeting quickly arranged to take place at Mr. 
Carnegie’s house in New York, on the evening of March 
17th, attended by Mr. Carnegie, Mr. Phipps, Mr. Schwab 
and Mr. Lovejoy, representing Mr. Frick, Mr. Phipps 
submitted the latter’s suggestion and it was favorably 
received. Three days later it was adopted by all parties 
in interest at a larger gathering in Atlantic City which 
became famous and, on March 21st, the following com- 
munication was delivered by hand: 


Tur CARNEGIE STEEL CompaANy, LiMiTED. 
PITTSBURGH, PA. 
Mr. H. C. Frick, March 21st, 1900, 


Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Dear Sir: 

Referring to the tentative Agreement made at Atlantic City, 
March roth and 20th, 1900, by Messrs. Carnegie, Phipps (Henry), 
Schwab, Phipps (L.C..), Lovejoy, Morrison, Clemson, Gayley and 
Moreland, covering a plan for the consolidation of the Carnegie 
Steel and Frick Coke interests recommended by all the signers :— 

To prevent any misunderstanding as to the terms of said tenta- 
tive Agreement as to one particular, on which you advise me that 
you do not consider the language sufficiently explicit: I would say 
that it is the understanding of all the persons making said Agree- 
ment that the transfer of six per cent. of the Capital of The Car- 
negie Steel Company, Limited, made by me (as Attorney in Fact 
under the “‘Iron-clad Agreement’’) out of your Capital Account, 
February 1st, 1900, shall be cancelled to the end that you shall be 
entitled to and shall receive your full share (6%) of the Dividend 
declared by The Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, to adjust the 
relative Book-Values of the Stocks of The Carnegie Steel Company, 
Limited, and of the H. C. Frick Coke Company and its subsidiary 
Companies, as provided in said Agreement, and of any and all 
other Dividends, if any, declared by The Carnegie Steel Company, 
Limited, between January 31st, 1900 and the date upon which the 
consolidation is consummated and the balance of surplus turned 
over to the new Companies. 

You shall receive out of this merger the same moneys, bonds, 


ASS 


Frick the Man 


stocks and other properties as if no attempt had been made to 
transfer such interest. 
We hope to be able to complete said merger in all respects by May 
Ist, 1900, and we now agree to do so by June ist, 1900, at furthest. 
This to be without prejudice in case the Agreement referred to 


be not approved by all concerned. Yours truly 


C. M. Scuwas. 
President 


The settlement was heralded, by unanimous assent, 
for courtesy’s sake as a‘‘compromise’’; it was really a 
complete surrender by Mr. Carnegie and an unqualified 
triumph for Mr. Frick, who received from the new com- 
pany precisely $15,000,000 for the interest whose value 
he had estimated at ‘‘upwards’’ of that sum, and who 
celebrated the event by sending a single telegram to his 
friend, Mr. Whitney, reading: 

Settlement made. I get what is due me. All well. 

I, of course, have not met this man Carnegie and never expect 
nor want to. It is not my intention to be officially connected with 
the reorganized concern. 

In point of fact, by arrangement, neither Mr. Carnegie 
nor Mr. Frick was included in the directorate, but the 
former assumed full control from Scotland and the latter 
kept a sharp eye on operations in Pittsburgh. The month 
of March, 1900, the last of separate operation, showed net 
profits : of the Carnegie Steel Company, $4,394,588.48; of 
the Frick Coke Company, $666,142.41; a total of more 
than $5,000,000,—at the rate of $60,000,000 per year. 

“Pretty satisfactory figures, are they not?’ wrote Mr. 
Frick to Mr. Mellon in London. 

But he chafed at signs of what he considered loose and 
wasteful management and latein August, on the day when 

256 


Mr. Frick Wins His Fight 


President Schwab left the great concern headless to sail 
for Skibo, he sent the following cablegram,—the last 
message ever sent by him to his former partner: 
CarneaiE, Clashmore. 

You being in control, stockholders and public look to you to 
see that the great Carnegie Company is managed successfully and 
honestly. Five year contracts for coal fifty per cent above the low- 
est price paid, and six per cent above prices now currently paid by 
smaller concern. Ruinous. Scrap unloaded on you at fancy prices, 
while others were selling, now being sacrificed abroad. Look into 
these and other matters yourself. Do not let them hide things from 
you. You cannot trust many by whom you are surrounded to give 
you facts. You need commercial rather than professional ability to 
cope with concerns managed by brainy and honest men trained to 
the business. You are being outgeneralled all along the line, and 
your management of the Company has already become the subject 
of jest. Thies 

Simultaneously he wrote a long letter to Mr. Phipps, 
then in England, specifying many instances of losses ag- 
gregating millions per year incurred unnecessarily and 
calling him sharply to task, as a director, for inatten- 
tiveness to his obligations. 

Meanwhile the consolidation of the two companies 
had been effected under the name of The Carnegie Com- 
pany and $160,000,000 bonds and $160,000,000 of stock 
had been issued proportionately to the original owners, 
resulting in the delivery to the three chief shareholders 


of the following securities: 


STOCK BONDS 
Andrew Carnegie $86,382,000 $88,147,000 
Henry Phipps 17,227,000 17,577,000 
Henry C. Frick 15,484,000 15,800,000 


the remainder going to sixty junior partners and heirs 
of deceased members of the firm. 
257 


XIX 
The United States Steel Corporation 


HE Carnegie Company died a yearling. It began 

Operations on April 1st, 1900, and passed out 

of existence on March 31st, 1901. The time had 

then come for Mr. Carnegie to realize his cher- 
ished ambition to retire by forcing a sale of his prop- 
erty upon his rivals, and he proceeded with unexampled 
skill and audacity to accomplish his purpose. A way 
had been opened through the enormous successes of the 
steel and coke concerns which enabled the new con- 
_solidated company to earn interest upon a thousand mil- 
lions of dollars, which it might either pay in full or use 
in part to crush its competitors. In any case, whatever 
disposition might be made of profits, the credit of the 
Company was limitless and its power as resistless as its 
position was impregnable. 

That its policy was to be one of expansion along new 
lines was clearly indicated by the announcement, early in 
the summer, of immediate construction of a $12,000,000 
tube plant upon land already purchased at Conneaut on 
Lake Erie. This was a dagger thrust at the very heart 
of corporate finance. What was about to happen to the 
National Tube Company, just formed and floated by no 
less a firm than J. P. Morgan & Co.? Mr. Carnegie made 
light of the undertaking. 

258 


The United States Steel Corporation 


“The policy of the Carnegie Company,”’ he declared, 
‘1s to codperate in every way with its fellow manufac- 
turers in the industrial world, and not to push itself into 
any new field save in self-defence. We did not leave the 
National Tube Company. They left us, which they had 
a perfect right to do, of course. Now we are ready to 
shake hands and codperate with them in the most friendly 
spirit. Weare better for them thana dozen small concerns, 
conducted in a small jealous way. We believe there is 
room enough for the two concerns,”’ etc. 

But the misgivings of the security holders, instead of 
being dispelled by this naive declaration, were greatly en- 
hanced when it transpired that Mr. Schwab had brought 
back from Skibo a message to his partners from the con- 
trolling owner containing these significant phrases: 


If I were czar (of the Carnegie Company), I would make no 
dividends upon common stock, save all surplus, and spend it for a 
hoop and cotton-tie mill, for wire and nail mills, for tube mills, 
for lines of boats upon the Lakes for our manufactured articles, and 
to bring back scrap, etc... . Put your trust in the policy of attend- 
ing to your own business in your own way and running your mills 
_ full, regardless of prices, and very little trust in the efficacy of arti- 
ficial arrangements with your competitors, which have the serious 
result of strengthening them if they strengthen you. Such is my 
advice. 


This clearly presaged aggressive and ruinous compe- 
tition, not merely for the National Tube Company, but 
for eight other near-Trust metal concerns, which had 
been organized during the previous few years and financed 
in Wall Street through the sale of more than five hun- 
dred millions of stock,—all over-capitalized and all 
vulnerable. 

259 


Frick the Man 


‘Tt is all Carnegie bluff,’’ sneered brokers who still 
had stock for sale. 

But responsible bankers, directors and managers were 
less confident. True, bluffing had constituted a large part 
in the canny Scotsman’s shrewd trading with the new 
corporations but that was no secret; he had admitted the 
fact with a frankness which they had found most dis- 
concerting. | 

‘Inform these people,’’ he had openly instructed his 
managers, ‘‘that we do not propose to be injured; on the 
contrary, we expect to reap great gains from it; that we 
will observe an ‘armed neutrality’ as long as it is made 
to our interest to do so, but that we require this arrange- 
ment—then specify what is advantageous for us, very 
advantageous, more advantageous than existed before 
the combination, and we will get it. If they decline to 
give us what we want, then there must be no bluff. We 
must accept the situation and prove that if it is fight they 
want, here we are ‘always ready’. Here is a historic sit- 
uation for the Managers to study—Richelieu’s advice: 
‘First, all means to conciliate; failing that, all means to 
crush’.”’ 

This relentless policy he was now in a position to 
adopt with every prospect of success, and his pronuncia- 
mento indicated only too distinctly that he meant to en- 
force it promptly and rigorously. It was the stern reality 
of the actual situation, in vastly greater measure than 
either the eager pleading of Judge Gary recounted by 
his biographer or the eloquent portrayal of possibilities 
by Mr. Schwab at a celebrated dinner party, that finally 

260 


‘“CLAYTON’ —PITTSBURGH 


The United States Steel Corporation 


impelled Mr. Morgan to essay the greatest undertaking 
of his career. Obviously the only solution of the problem 
lay in amalgamation of the segregated Trusts upon a lar- 
get scalethan had ever been dreamed of, and Mr. Carnegie 
held the key to success or failure in his whiphand. 

Mr. Schwab, who had reported that Mr. Carnegie 
would sell, was commissioned to obtain his price, and 
quickly returned with a pencilled memorandum embody- 
ing his terms. Characteristically, Mr. Morgan accepted 
the figures as final and, taking the option sum as a basis, 
himself fixed arbitrarily the amount, chiefly in securities, 
to be allotted each of the desired constituent companies. 
His liberal proposals were accepted promptly by the 
frightened owners and plans for the United States Steel 
Corporation were actually published when a singular and 
possibly vital omission was noted with deep concern. To 
“round out” the enterprise, the Rockefeller ore proper- 
ties must be acquired and included. 

There then took place an extraordinary episode shed- 
ding interesting sidelights upon various personalities. 

“Morgan growled”’ that they “‘had all they could at- 
tend to,’’ records Judge Gary’s biographer, but the Judge 
persisted and, continues the biographer: 


‘*How ate we going to get them?”’ Mr. Morgan asked. 

‘You are to talk to Mr. Rockefeller.”’ 

“T would not think of it.”’ 

“Why?” 

“IT don’t like him.”’ 

“Mr. Morgan,”’ said the Judge, ‘‘when a business proposition 
of so great importance to the Steel Corporation is involved, would 
you let a personal prejudice interfere with its success?”’. 

“IT don’t know,” he replied. 

261 


Frick the Man 


The next morning, however, he came in excitedly, throwing up 
his arms in exultation and shouting to Judge Gary, ‘I have done 
if: 

“*Done what?”’ 

‘*T have seen Rockefeller.’ 

‘*How did he treat you?”’ 

“All right.” 

“Did you get the ore lands?”’ 

‘No. I just told him that we ought to have them, and asked 
him if he would not make a proposition. How much do you think 
we ought to pay?” 

‘I am not prepared to say. It would take me a week to figure 
out what I would consider a reasonable price.” 

‘Well, tell me offhand what you think we ought to pay.”’ 

The Judge worked for half an hour, and finally announced, 
““there’s an outside figure—so many millions.” 


Mr. Morgan made no response and there the matter 
rested forseveraldays. Mr. Rockefeller, having originally 
declined a request from Mr. Morgan for an interview 
at his office upon the ground that he never went down- 
town, replied to a second suggestion that he would be 
happy to see Mr. Morgan at his residence at the latter’s 
convenience, with the understanding that only strictly 
personal matters were to be considered, as he supposed 
the fact was generally known that he had retired from 
business. | 

Notwithstanding this restriction, Mr. Morgan called 
and, having briefly depicted the situation, told Mr. Rocke- 
feller, precisely as he had recited to Judge Gary, that 
the new Steel Corporation ought to have his iron ores. 
Mr. Rockefeller expressed regret that Mr. Morgan had 
put himself to unnecessary trouble, owing doubtless to 
a misunderstanding of his previous message, and sug- 

262 


The United States Steel Corporation 


gested that he talk with his son, who had charge of such 
matters and would undoubtedly be pleased to wait upon 
him. 

Having obtained Judge Gary’s judgment of a suitable 
price, Mr. Morgan invited Mr. John D., junior, to call, 
and at the appointed hour, the young man—he was then 
only twenty-seven—appeared for his first interview with 
the lion of Wall Street. The two sat down. 

“T understand,’’ said Mr. Morgan brusquely, ‘‘that 
your father wants to sell his Minnesota ore properties 
and has authorized you to act for him. How much do 
you want for them?’ 

Young Mr. Rockefeller rose from his chair and, with 
an evenness of tone suggestive of his father’s, replied: 

“Tt is true that I am authorized to speak for my father 
in such matters, Mr. Morgan, but I have no information 
to the effect that he wishes to dispose of his ore proper- 
ties: in point of fact, Jam confident that he has no such 
desire.”’ 

‘‘And what did Mr. Morgan say?’’ quietly asked Mr. 
Rockefeller when his son repeated his remarks. 

“Mr. Morgan said nothing; he sat quite silent.’’ 

‘‘And what did you do?”’ 

“T picked up my hat and, bowing as courteously as I 
know how, I said ‘If that is all, Mr. Morgan, I bid you 
good afternoon,’ and walked out. Did I do right, sir?”’ 

Mr. Rockefeller meditated for an instant and replied 
thoughtfully: 

“Whether what you said was right or wise, I would 
not venture to judge; time alone can answer that ques- 

263 


Frick the Man 


tion; but I may say to you, my son, that if I had been in 
your place, Ishould have done precisely what you did.”’ 

Negotiations were at a standstill. Obviously no ap- 
proach could be expected from Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. 
Morgan could not reopen the subject without sacrifice 
of dignity. But Wall Street was agog with excitement, 
subscriptions to the syndicate underwriting were being 
held up and publication of the completed plan was in the 
printer’s hands awaiting inclusion of the essential ore 
properties. The whole project was endangered and time 
was pressing. Mr. Morgan sent for Mr. Frick and put- 
ting the situation before him; asked what, if anything, 
could he suggest? 

Mr. Frick said he would think the matter over and 
went home. His acquaintance with Mr. Rockefeller was 
slight. Years before he had been introduced to him by 
Mr. Carnegie in words of fulsome praise and had received 
hearty congratulations upon the “‘intelligence, courage 
and firmness’’ which he had displayed in the Homestead 
controversy. The two had met onceor twice more recently 
but their conversation had been only casual and the best 
assurance that Mr. Frick could feel was that Mr. Rocke- 
feller regarded him favorably as one who had rendered 
signal service to all corporate interests, and that their 
relations were friendly. 

Proud and sensitive himself, he disliked to invite a re- 
buff, but he had voluntarily proffered his services to Mr. 
Morgan if in any way they could be utilized to advantage 
and, after due consideration, without consulting anybody 
or even notifying Mr. Morgan, he decided to take the 

264 


The United States Steel Corporation 


initiative and, through a trustworthy intermediary, he 
sought an interview with Mr. Rockefeller which should 
be regarded as wholly private and confidential. 

The response was prompt and cordial. Mr. Rockefeller 
would be happy to see him respecting any matter of mutual 
interest and suggested that he come quietly to Pocantico 
Hills the following morning. Accordingly, shortly be- 
fore 10 o'clock, Mr. Frick, leaving his carriage to wait 
onthemain street, walked upthedriveway to Mr. Rocke- 
feller’s residence and, just within the entrance, found 
Mr. Rockefeller himself strolling thoughtfully through 
his spacious grounds. Mr. Frick joined him in his walk 
and, briefly apologizing for what he feared might prove 
to be an intrusion, set forth the purpose of his mission. 
Mr. Rockefeller listened attentively to a concise, accurate 
and straightforward statement, such as had first won the 
approbation of Judge Mellon years before, and then said: 

“Mr. Frick, I naturally suspected what you had in 
mind. My understanding of the situation coincides in all 
respects with yours. As my son told Mr. Morgan, I am 
not anxious to sell my ore properties, but, as you surmise, 
I never wish to stand in the way of a worthy enterprise. 
I do frankly object, however, to a prospective purchaser 
arbitrarily fixing an ‘outside figure’ and I cannot deal on 
such a basis. That seems too much like an ultimatum. 
Now I want to ask you a question. Nobody is more 
familiar with those properties than you are. Do you or 
do you not agree with me that the price these gentle- 
men propose to pay is less by several millions than their 
true value?’ 

265 


Frick the Man 


Mr. Frick replied that unquestionably, if payment was 
to be made chiefly in securities of the new company, and 
taking into consideration the allotments made for other 
properties, the sum suggested was far too small. 

“I thought that would be your answer,’’ said Mr. 
Rockefeller. ‘“Now, Mr. Frick, I will tell you what I 
will do. I want only a just and fair price. You know 
what that is, certainly better than those gentlemen do, 
and quite likely than I do. I know your judgment is good 
and I believe you to be a square man. I am willing, Mr. 
Frick, to put my interests in these properties in your 
hands.”’ 

Amazed at this proposal, Mr. Frick, while expressing 
full appreciation of the compliment, hesitated to assume 
the responsibility. 

‘*You need not hesitate, Mr. Frick,’’ calmly remarked 
Mr. Rockefeller. ‘‘My confidence is implicit. You will 
receive no complaint from me. Now you will wish to be 
on your way. I thank you for coming to see me.”’ 

The two men shook hands and parted. The outcome 
of their conversation is recorded by Judge Gary’s biog- 
rapher in these words: 

“To my surprise,’’ Judge Gary says in telling the story, “Mr. 
Frick brought in a figure from Mr. Rockefeller a few days later— 
$5,000,000 more than my outside figure. “That is a prohibitive 
proposition’ I said. 

‘* ‘Judge Gary,’ exclaimed Mr. Morgan, ‘in a business proposition 
as great as this would you let a matter of $5,000,000 stand in the ~ 
way of success?’ 

“But I told you, Mr. Morgan, that mine was the outside.’ 


‘Well, put it this way: would you let these properties go?’ 
66é ‘No. ’ . 


266 


The United States Steel Corporation 


4e¢6 99 


Well, write out an acceptance.’ 

And so it happened that when on April 2 another circular came 
out, addressed to the stockholders, the Lake Superior Consoli- 
dated Ore Mines were included in the amalgamation. 

Years afterwards Mr. Rockefeller, recalling the inci- 
dent, said ““The price seemed wholly fair at that time 
and was entirely satisfactory to me. It was not long either 
before the purchasers themselves-realized that it was 
really very low.”’ 

“‘I doubt, as Irecall the circumstances,’’ he added rem1- 
niscently, ‘‘if anybody but Mr. Frick could have effected 
the transaction.”’ 

“And if it had not been effected?’’ he was asked. 

“Then, in my opinion,’’ he replied slowly, ‘‘the United 
States Steel Corporation could not have survived the 
stress of its formative period.”’ 

In view of the tremendous enhancement of the new 
company’s prestige through the subsequent inclusion, 
arranged by Mr. Frick, of both Mr. Rockefeller and his 
son, in its first directorate, this deduction seems more 
nearly certain than probable. In any case, Mr. Frick, 
greatly to his credit, permitted no mention of the part 
he had played in achieving the reconcilement and, as 
late as 1903, with his consent and approval, the historian 
Bridge summed up the great accomplishment from the 
standpoint of the Carnegie shareholders with this un- 
divided encomium: 

It was the most masterly piece of diplomacy in the history of 


American industry, and formed a fitting climax to Andrew Car- 
negie’s romantic business career. 


267 


Prick the Mian 


Mr. Frick received in exchange for his interest in the 
Carnegie Company these securities in the United States 
Steel Corporation, to wit: 


Bonds 3 "yy Vee SOs ee ee $15,800,000 
Preferred stock (7%) . . 2. 1 3 23,767,940 
Commonstock: | §:,. sin eae See 21,832,440 


representing substantially the net combined recompense 
for his services to the H. C. Frick Coke Company for 
thirty-one years and to the Carnegie Steel Company for 
twelve years. 

He was elected a member of the first Board of Directors 
of the United States Steel Corporation as a matter of 
course. 


And so it came about that, barely sixteen months after 
he had been ousted, by Mr. Carnegie’s orders, from the 
management of the two great companies which he had 
done so much to build, Henry Clay Frick was brought 
back, through Mr. Carnegie’s retirement, into a position 
soon to become hardly less potent in the controlling 
Committee of both, and retained it to his dying day. 


268 


xX 
A Capitalist 


1TH completion of the processes which 
transformed his ownership in the steel 
and coke companies into bonds and shares 
of the great Corporation, the career of 
Mr. Frick as an executive ended and he emerged, at the 
age of fifty-two, a capitalist of the first rank whose in- 
terests were no longer confined to a manufacturing town 
but now lay in the financial center of the country. He 
never forsook and frequently occupied his handsome resi- 
dence in Pittsburgh but in 1905 he leased for the family 
an additional residence in New York City and two years 
later took possession of the magnificent country estate 
which he had acquired at Pride’s Crossing, Massachusetts. 
Their first house in New York, at No. 640 Fifth Ave- 
nue, was admirably located and most comfortable, but 
it did not quite fill Mr. Frick’s fixed requirement of ‘‘al- 
ways the best.’’ He had known for years precisely what 
he wanted. Away back in 1880, while Mr. Mellon and 
himself were waiting to embark on their first trip to 
Europe, they took a drive up Fifth Avenue. Pausing in 
front of the cathedral, Mr. Frick directed his friend’s at- 
tention to thenew brownstone Vanderbilt houses across 
the street. 
269 


Frick the Man 


‘‘T suppose,’’ he remarked meditatively, “those are 
really the best residences in the city.”’ 

‘IT think they areso considered,”’ rejoined Mr. Mellon. 

‘I wonder how much the upkeep of the one on that 
corner would be.”’ 

Mr. Mellon ventured no estimate. 

‘Say three hundred thousand dollars a year? I should 
think that would cover it.”’ 

“It might.’ 

‘That would be 6 per cent on five millions or 5 per 
cent on six, say a thousand dollars a day; that is all I 
shall ever want,’’ Mr. Frick remarked, and they walked 
along. 

So, as a matter of course, twenty odd years later, Mr. 
Frick rented the residence of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt 
and the family occupied it until 1914, when they moved 
into the palace which he had built at a cost of $5,400,- 
ooo on the site of the Lenox library to serve primarily asa 
residence and ultimately as an art gallery for the public. 

Meanwhile he entered upon his new vocation. Weary 
of the exactions of desk work after thirty years of close 
application, he took no office but shared that of his 
friend Mr. Schoonmaker until 1914, when he provided a 
small study for his personal use in his new residence, while 
retaining his rooms in the Frick Building, Pittsburgh, 
for transaction of business. His waking hours quickly 
and automatically resolved into three approximately 
equal parts: (2) Investments, (2) Art, @) Recreation,— 
and they continued to be allotted in about those pro- 
portions during the ensuing years. 

2'70 


A Capitalist 

The first problem which demanded prompt attention 
was financial. Nine-tenths of Mr. Frick’s entire fortune, 
estimated at $50,000,000, was held in United States Steel 
securities and the stock exchange prices justified the valu- 
ation when Mr. Morgan, by a stroke of genius, had car- 
ried the Corporation successfully through its first crisis 
by personally settling the strike which was called co- 
incidentally with its launching. The Syndicate still con- 
trolled the market, under the adroit manipulation of Mr. 
James R. Keene, and the prospect at the beginning of 
1902 appeared auspicious. 

But Mr. Frick was unquiet. He not only had too many 
of his eggs in one basket, but he appreciated the danger 
of the company’s heavy over-capitalization and was still 
most distrustful of themanagement of which he had com- 
plained to Mr. Carnegie the year before. As he was not 
a member of the Syndicate and was a director only in 
name, having declined to participate in the management 
even to the extent of attending meetings of the Board, 
he was under no commitment with respect to the dis- 
position of his shares. He had no wish to sell but careful 
study from his expert knowledge of results and methods 
of operation convinced him that declines in earnings 
were inevitable, and he began to liquidate his holdings. 

The accuracy of his judgment was quickly confirmed 
by the gyrations of the stock market, to wit: 

1902 1903 1904 
High Low High Low High Low 
U.S. Sreex, Preferred 973% 79 8934 50% 9558 51% 
U.S.Srzzt,Common 4634 219% 39% I0 3356 834 


271 


Frick the Man 


Mr. Frick sold slowly and circumspectly on temporary 
rebounds, but the time came when he had disposed of 
his entire block of 218,324 shares of common stock and 
all but 10,000 of his original 237,679 shares of preferred. 

The bottom was reached in January, 1904, when the 
common struck 834 and the preferred shivered around $0. 

It was indeed a desperate situation. Business was bad. 
Dividends, which had been paid regularly at the rates of 
7 per cent on the preferred stock and 2 per cent on the 
common were not being earned. Twenty-one thousand 
employés had been discharged and the average wage of 
the 147,000 remaining had been reduced from $716 to 
$677. Thousands of these had bought from the company 
at 8234 preferred stock which was now quoted at 50. 
The ‘‘profit-sharing’’ plan seemed to have resolved into 
a ‘‘loss-sharing’’ plan devised by Wall Street promoters 
to unload their worthless shares upon their own work- 
ingmen, whomight lose every dollar of their hard-earned 
savings. Rumors were rife of a receivership and foreclo- 
sure, confirming Mr.Carnegie’s reported expectation that 
the entire property would fall to him as owner of the 
bonds by default. A semi-panic was already hatching on 
the stock exchange. 

Only a Morgan could hope to stem the tide and 
weather the storm. Again the great banker called upon 
Mr. Frick for advice and assistance. 

The meeting took place on Mr. Morgan's yacht the 
Corsair. After having depicted the true situation with 
the lucidity of which he was a master, Mr. Frick recom- 
mended: (1) Stoppage of dividends on the common stock, 

272 


A Capitalist 

(2) Reduction of dividends on the preferred, and (3) Com- 
plete reorganization of the operating force. Mr. Morgan 
had just rejected Judge Gary’s fervent plea to pass divi- 
dends on the common stock but, upon Mr. Frick’s pres- 
entation of the case, he would now assent. Mr.Schwab 
having resigned, he would approve a thorough reor- 
ganization if Mr. Frick would contribute his energy and 
experience to make it effective. 

To this Mr. Frick could not consent. Mr. Mellon and 
himself had been driven by a disagreement with Mr. Car- 
negie into expansion of a small wire enterprise to steel 
manufacture ona large scaleas the Union Steel Company, 
which had not been included in the big combination. 
With Mr. Mellon’s consent he had lent the use of his 
name as a director to the Corporation, but he could not 
properly participate actively in the management of a 
competing concern. To Mr. Morgan, however, this did 
not appear as an insurmountable obstacle. 

“For the purpose of inducing Mr. Frick to become 
active in the Steel Corporation,’’ said Mr. George F. 
Redmond in his Financial Weekly,‘‘Mr. Morgan purchased 
the Union Steel Works’’ at a price which, Mr. Mellon 
declared, ‘‘yielded a fair profit to all concerned.”’ 

There remained only the question of continuing divi- 
dends upon the preferred stock. Mr. Redmond continued: 


Mr. Frick pleaded earnestly and Mr. Morgan listened intently. 
Finally, rising from the breakfast table and going on deck with 
Mr. Frick, he said to him, with tears in his eyes, that if the divi- 
dends were not paid on the preferred stock, he could not face going 
down town on the following day. Mr. Frick was deeply touched. 


273 


Frick the Man 


He then realized how keenly Mr. Morgan felt upon the subject and 
assured him that not another word should be said. At once he 
threw himself energetically into the task of aiding in steering 
the great organization through its trouble. 

The other directors were enheartened by Mr. Frick’s 
action; internal dissensions ceased; certain influential 
directors, who had induced Mr. George F. Baker unwill- 
ingly to convey to Mr. Morgan a proposal that Judge 
Gary be deposed, accepted his refusal to acquiesce, 
without resentment; all joined in firm determination to 
avert further disaster. 

Good fortune attended earnest endeavors. Business 
began to pick up, the working shareholders accepted the 
passing of the common dividend as evidence that their 
interests were being safeguarded, and all other preferred 
stockholders naturally took heart. 

Inevitably the market responded slowly but steadily. 
Before the close of 1906, when dividends were resumed, 
the preferred stock had climbed from 50% to 113% and 
the common from 834 to 50}4. The crisis had been met 
successfully and incidentally, at the end of the three- 
year period of resuscitation, Mr. Frick, now assured good 
management and convinced of sound conditions, accord- 
ing to Mr. Albert W. Atwood, the financial expert, ““was 
down on the books of the company as the owner of 100,- 
ooo shares of preferred and 50,000 shares of common 
stock,’’ the amounts which he had quietly acquired as 
suitable for permanent investment. 

During the anxious period which immediately followed 
public announcement of his resumption of activity in 

274 


A Capitalist 

steel manufacture, Mr. Frick was deluged with letters 
of inquiry from anxious investors, all of which he an- 
swered with painstaking care, with a view to spreading 
warranted reassurance without conveying undue encour- 
agement. His first replies were somewhat perfunctory, 
of the “‘wait and see’ order, but toward the end of 1904 
he became more explicit. 

‘I know you are wrong,’’ he wrote in December to 
Mr. E. T. Earl of Los Angeles, ‘‘in suspecting that Mr. 
Morgan has in any way intentionally deceived investors. 
Of course some things were done that should not have 
been done, but it isa great property and I think it is now 
well managed.’’ 

Striving to inculcate caution, he wrote anonymously 
to Mr. Charles W. Barron of the Boston News Bureau: 


November 7th, 1904. 
Dear Sir: 

Are you sure of your position on the Steels? 

Does the Corporation have any cash surplus applicable to divi- 
dends? 

Is not their surplus invested in improvements made on their 
properties, and which from time to time should be charged against 
earnings, especially so in view of the high capitalization of the 
Company? 

Can you not ascertain for a regular 

READER 


But he did not withhold words of encouragement from 
his co-laborerts. | 
“I very much regret,’’ he telegraphed to the new 
President, Mr. W. E. Corey, ‘‘my inability to be pres- 
ent at the dinner to the Presidents of the constituent 
275 


Frick the Man 


Companies this evening. I congratulate them, one and 
all, upon their efficiency during this trying year, the 
splendid condition of their organizations and the pres- 
ent bright outlook.”’ 

Those were busy years, leaving little time for discrimi- 
native purchase of paintings or for recreation, although 
neither of those pursuits was wholly neglected. Many 
millions of dollars derived from sale of his steel securities 
were awaiting judicious investment and his concentra- 
tive policy forbade haphazard purchases of dissimilar 
properties. Hemust place hismoney where hecould watch 
and guide it without encroaching too heavily upon his 
time. Inquiry and reflection finally evolved a programme. 

‘‘Railroads,’’ he concluded, ‘‘are the Rembrandts of 
investment.’’ 

And railways began and continued through life to con- 
stitute his chief financial interest, to the virtual exclusion 
of all other considerations. But first he acquainted him- 
self with all of the intricacies of values, present and pro- 
spective, of natural growth and forced development, of 
increase, decrease and distribution of earnings, of trans- 
portation and rate-making with which asa large shipper 
he was already familiar, of judicious extravagance as 
compared with false economies, of financing through is- 
suance of shares or bonds, of general conditions which 
presaged easy or difficult marketing of securities and 
finally all details of bookkeeping, of which his thirty 
yeats of practice since he first took his place upon the 
high stool in his Grandfather Overholt’s little counting- 
room at Broadford had made him a past master. 

276 


A Capitalist 
April 14th, 1905, found him a director in the follow- 
ing railway companies: 
Chicago and Northwestern. 
Union Pacific. 


Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé. 
Reading. 


To these were added shortly: 


The Pennsylvania. 
Baltimore and Ohio. 
Norfolk and Western. 

Small interests in small companies did not attract him. 
Those enumerated heselected as the ones preferableamong 
the large corporations and, adding steadily to his hold- 
ings from his constantly increasing income, presently he 
became the largest individual railway stockholder in the 
world, being recorded on the various books at one time 
as the owner of an average exceeding $6,000,000 par value 
in each of his seven favorites, without taking into cal- 
culation many additional shares held by brokers and 
others for his account. 

He never “‘speculated’’ in the common sense of the 
term; that is to say, he did not trade on margins; when 
he bought or sold, as frequently happened, the. trans- 
actions were outright and deliveries were duly made. 
He never tried to break down a property; if he could not 
perceive a possibility of building one up by exercise of 
talent and use of exceptional resources, he let it alone. 
In voicing his views, he was always a bull, never a bear; 
but he seldom expressed an opinion. 

Personal contact with strong financial institutions being 

277 


Frick the Man 


considered a desirable safeguard for railway financing, 
he was recorded in 1905 as a director in the Union Trust 
Company and Mellon National Bank of Pittsburgh, 
the Commercial Trust Company and Franklin National 
Bank of Philadelphia, the Equitable Life Assurance So- 
ciety with its allied banks and the National City Bank 
of New York. 

During the summer of 1901, Mr. Frick had granted 
‘with pleasure’ a request from Mr. James H. Hyde, con- 
trolling owner, that he accept election as a trustee of the 
Equitable Life Assurance Society and wrote confirming 
his cablegram that he considered it “‘quite an honor to 
be offered the position on the Board of a company held 
in high esteem in Pittsburgh, as it is everywhere.’’ The 
Board then comprised fifty-two of the most distinguished 
business men of the country but their titles were only 
nominal, as the actual power of direction, though vested 
by the company’s charter in the directors, was exercised 
by small committees headed by President Alexander and 
Vice President Hyde. Mr. Frick was duly elected on Au- 
gust 7th, 1901, but in common with the other “‘outside’”’ 
directors he did not attend a meeting until February 8th, 
1905. Prior to that time he had shared without a shadow 
of doubt the universal belief that the phenomenal success 
of the great Society afforded convincing proof of the ex- 
cellence of its management. 

Then came the culmination of an unsuspected feud be- 
tween the President and the Vice President over the future 
control of the Society and each made public charges 
against the other of sucha character as to create a veritable 

278 


A Capitalist 

sensation throughout the entire country. Public opinion, 
aroused by hundreds of thousands of indignant and fright- 
ened policy-holders, forced a meeting of the big Board 
of Directors, at which a thorough investigation by com- 
petent and disinterested members was decreed. A strong 
committee comprising Messrs. Cornelius N. Bliss, Henry 
C. Frick, Edward H. Harriman, Melville E. Ingalls and 
Brayton Ives, was promptly designated to make an in- 
vestigation and to submit recommendations. 

Mr. Frick who, it was well known, had done no busi- 
ness with the Society and had never profited directly or 
indirectly from its operations, was appointed Chairman. 
It was an arduous and thankless task which he would 
have gladly shunned but for his chagrin at his own ap- 
parent neglect, intensified by his consciousness of a pub- 
lic duty, and he accepted the responsibility. 

Subsequent events clearly and quickly demonstrated 
that a majority of the Board, subservient to the two high 
officials whose acts were in question, would not have 
acquiesced in the appointment of Mr. Frick if they had 
estimated correctly the quality of the man. 

The first meeting of the Committee was held on April 
7th and no time was lost in beginning a searching in- 
quiry into the practices primarily of the President and 
the Vice President, with the resultant findings (1) that 
both had profited materially through participation in 
underwriting syndicates at the expense of the Society 
with no risk to themselves, (2) that the Vice President 
had been guilty of irregular conduct in relation to the 
affairs of the Society, (3) that the President had not only 


279 


Frick the Man 


been aware of but had encouraged such conduct and had 
concealed his knowledge from the Board, (4) that the 
two, therefore, were equally guilty and should be de- 
posed, (5) that extravagant, loose and irregular methods 
permeated the entire force, owing to the pernicious ex- 
amples set by the heads and (6) that a complete reorgan- 
ization by an entirely new management was imperative. 

This unanimous and unexpectedly inexorable report, 
fully sustained by indubitable proof, was submitted by the 
Chairman to the Board, with the accompanying drastic 
recommendations, on May 31st, but meanwhile Messrs. 
Alexander and Hyde, joining forces for this purpose, had 
mustered a sufficient number of directors to constitute a 
majority, and the Board rejected the report. The policy- 
holders, the newspapers and the public generally, how- 
ever, upheld the Committee so overwhelmingly that the 
resignations of both President and Vice President were 
soon forthcoming and ultimately the complete reorgan- 
ization advised was effected. Thus a very signal service 
was rendered, not merely to millions of policy-holders 
and beneficiaries, but to the fundamental practices of in- 
surance management, and made for more scrupulous con- 
duct of all corporations. 

Mr. Frick, immediately upon the rejection of his recom- 
mendations, not only resigned from the Equitable Board, 
but severed his connection with all of its allied financial 
institutions, including the Mercantile and EquitableTrust 
Companies of New York and the Commercial Trust Com- 
pany and Franklin National Bank of Philadelphia. He 
had had his lesson,—never again to lend his name to a 

280 


A Capitalist 
concern with whose condition and operations he could 
not maintain full familiarity. 

In point of fact, he did not, during the remaining four- 
teen years, join another Board and, resigning from the 
National City Bank of New York in 1910 and from the 
Union Pacific and its auxiliary railways in 1911, he re- 
stricted his directorships to his favored Pennsylvania, 
Reading, Atchison and Northwestern railways; to his 
trusted Pittsburgh banks, the Mellon National and the 
Union Trust Company, in each of which he was a large 
shareholder; and of course to the United States Steel 
Corporation, of whose meetings he practically never 
missed one except when abroad, and is said to have at- 
tended more than a thousand between 1905 and 1919. 

One of the most difficult problems confronting the 
United States Government at the conclusion of the war 
pertained to the return of the railways of the country to 
the control and direction of their original owners. The 
condition of the vast properties was inevitably deplora- 
ble. Normal progress had been arrested even before the 
country became directly involved in strife by the virtual 
impossibility of obtaining either capital, labor or mate- 
rials essential to adequate maintenance and, following 
the armistice, the Congress had undertaken to enact req- 
uisite legislation, but progress was distressingly slow. 

Fortunately the Administration had, in Walker D. 
Hines, Esq., who had succeeded Secretary McAdoo as 
Director General of the Railroads on January roth, 1919, 
a man who did not hesitate to face the situation squarely 
while there was yet time to avert widespread disaster. 

281 


Frick the Man 


On October 7th, 1919, he addressed a communication to 
Chairmen Cummins and Esch of the Senate and House 
Committees depicting the situation and setting forth the 
urgent need of legislation to avert irreparable damage 
to shippers and consumers no less than to holders of 
securities. 

This statement, presently published by the Congress- 
men, attracted the attention of Mr. Frick who, as the 
largest individual holder of railway securities, was natu- 
rally concerned most seriously. Theretofore he had taken 
no part in the discussion of ways and means of accom- 
plishing the purpose, relying upon the Association of 
Railway Executives, of which Mr. T. De Witt Cuyler, 
his co-director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was Chair- 
man, to co-operate with the Director General, whom he 
knew well and held in high esteem. But the latter's open 
warning to the Congress gave rise in his mind to appre- 
hension that all was not going well and he dictated the 
following lucid and convincing argument: 


New York, October 17th, 1919. 
Hon. Walker D. Hines, 


Director General of Railways, 
Washington, D. C. 
My dear Mr. Hines: 

Permit me to express the personal gratification which I feel at 
the convincing clearness with which you have put before the Con- 
gress and the public the exact situation of the railways of the 
country. I frankly cannot conceive how it could have been done 
more forcibly and effectively and, for that reason, I should con- 
sider that I were remiss in my duty as a citizen if I should fail to 
congratulate you most heartily and sincerely upon your rendering 
of a notable public service. 

In common with many others I am deeply distressed by the 


282 


A Capitalist 


appalling conditions which now confront us as a part of the after- 
math of the war, and while I cannot doubt that a just and true 
solution will ultimately be reached, I cannot escape the conclusion 
that something must be done at once to avert overwhelming dis- 
aster. That you are fully appreciative of the dangers which lurk in 
delay in grasping the situation manfully, even boldly, you show 
plainly in your lucid statement which, to my mind, as I have said, 
could not be improved upon. 

There is one phase of the existing condition, however, which I 
trust you will permit me to submit for your consideration without 
meaning to be in the slightest degree intrusive. It is the essential 
element of te. What the whole country needs now above all else 
is restoration of confidence, and this can be obtained only through 
prompt and decisive action such as would follow naturally and 
logically your admirable diagnosis. Everybody realizes that ade- 
quate railway service is the keystone of the entire arch of indus- 
trial progress and prosperity. Even more vital than the circulation 
of money is the circulation of goods. Without that the enormous 
demands now being made upon the manufacturers of all kinds of 
products cannot be met and business will continue to be at a stand- 
still so long as the requisite facilities are not provided. As of course 
you ate aware, the manufacturers are overwhelmed with orders 
which they cannot fill and they naturally refrain from making 
necessary enlargements of their plants while in doubt as to their 
ability to make deliveries. 

So it all comes straight back to the railroads. They must have 
relief and have it quickly, not merely in justice to the great army 
of investors in railway securities who accepted without question 
the President’s definite promises of fair treatment when they turned 
over their properties, but all for the general effect upon the public 
mind of reassurance in the good faith of their Government. 

The United States simply cannot afford, from even a purely prac- 
tical standpoint, to send the railroads further along the road to 
rack and ruin. And the only way in the world to prevent this is to 
increase the rates immediately, so that everybody may know to a 
certainty that when the properties are turned back to their owners 
they will be given a chance to live and to obtain readily on a fair 
basis the vast amount of capital whose outlay alone can prevent 
the choking of the great arteries of commerce. 


283 


Frick the Man 


How large an increase should be allowed I do not pretend to 
know. You are far better qualified to judge than I because my in- 
formation is necessarily general and not expert. But upon one 
point I do not hesitate to express a very positive opinion. This is 
no time for cheese-paring or niggardly treatment. Desperate dis- 
eases call for drastic remedies. Homeopathic doses in the present 
condition would be hardly better than none at all. Personally I 
am convinced that less than a 25 percent general increase would 
not get results. It ought, in fact, to be more, but this would 
probably be sufficient to tide over the crisis and give heart, encour- 
agement and resolution to all whose earnest co-operation must be 
had. 

We have in this country everything to do with. The only essen- 
tial thing is to press the button and you are the one person in a 
position to do it. I appreciate fully the magnitude of your respon- 
sibility and how seriously you must regard it. But there it is upon 
your shoulders and there is no escape. Nor, holding as I do so high 
an opinion of your breadth and courage, do I believe for a moment 
that you would care to evade it. Consequently I do not hesitate to 
point out what strikes me as a superb opportunity to do the right 
thing at the right time and the only thing as I perceive it, that can 
lift the pall of depression and mistrust which is surely settling 
down over the country. 3 

I am confident that I need make no apology for speaking thus 
frankly. I should feel hurt if I suspected for a moment that you 
would not welcome frank suggestion or that by any possibility 
you should attribute to me any unworthy motives. I only want 
what is best for our country and for all the people in it. 

If I should seem to have written too earnestly I beg you to 
accept my assurance that my doing so is due simply to the fact 
that that is the way I feel. 

With renewed appreciation of your splendid statement, 

Iam, 
Most sincerely yours, 
H. C. Frick. 


This letter quickly elicited the information that a seri- 
ous disagreement between the Director General and the 


Railway Executives had produced a dangerous deadlock 
284 


A Capitalist 
which seemed unlikely to be broken. Mr. Hines gladly wel- 
comed Mr. Frick’s intervention and promptly responded 
from a train en route from Chicago to Washington, put- 
ting him in possession of the facts. 

The crux of the entire difficulty lay in the question of 
rate-taising, which the Executives had demanded some- 
what peremptorily and which the Director General had 
refused to grant on the general ground that such action 
by the Government, for the sole benefit of the railways, 
upon the eve of relinquishing control, would surely evoke 
strong disapprobation throughout the country, which 
might in turn producea severe rebuke from the Congress. 
Moreover, as a matter of right, legal and moral, no less 
than that of the impracticability noted, he could not see 
his own way clear to take advantage of a technical, war- 
time privilege to deprive the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission of the power of regulation which it was designed 
by law to possess, and the exercise of which in ordinary 
course it would soon resume. 

All this, Mr. Hines informed Mr. Frick, he had pre- 
sented to the Railway Executives in amplified communi- 
cations, copies of which he inclosed for his inspection, 
adding simply but sturdily: 

I am glad to get the benefit of your views, and appreciate your 
writing me frankly on the subject, but I cannot escape the con- 
clusion above expressed. 

Thus Mr. Frick found himself in a position of grave 
responsibility which he had not sought but could not 
evade. The Director General’s attitude obviously was 


fixed irrevocably and the resolution adopted by the 
285 


Frick the Man 


Executives was unanimous, embracing the representations 
of all of the companies in which he was interested to a 
greater degree than anybody else. Clearly, he must reach 
a decision upon the merits of the case, to the exclusion 
of all other considerations. And this hedid with charac- 
teristic thoroughness. After having carefully weighed 
the arguments of both sides, he conferred at length with 
members of the Railway Committee, who were in effect 
his own representatives. 

But he did not stop there. He called into consultation 
a few friends who, having no personal interest in the 
matter, he thought might have a clearer comprehension 
of public opinion and its probable effect upon both the 
Congress and the future of the properties. His situation, 
indeed, was akin to that which confronted him when he 
was requested by the President to answer questions re- 
specting the actual cost of steel manufacture “‘as a citi- 
zen, not as a director.’’ He took a full week to decide; 
then, following a final conversation with one whom he 
knew to be wholly disinterested, he summarized deci- 
sively: 

‘Hines is right; I shall stand by him.”’ 

He then dictated the following letter: 


New York, October 27th, 1919. 

Hon. Walker D. Hines, 
Director General of Railways 
Washington, D. C. 
My dear Mr. Hines: 

I have to thank you for your valued favor of the 19th, and am 
inclined to the belief from the accompanying letters and what you 
say, that you could not well have taken any other course. 


286 


DRIVING OFF 


A Capitalist 


I may take the liberty of writing you again in the near future. 
I might say, however, as it stands today, it seems to me the only 
thing to do is to turn the railroads back to the owners with a 
guaranty for several months—probably as long as a year—or until 
proper railroad legislation can be secured. 
Sincerely yours, 


H. C. Frick. 


The relief borne by this crisp message to the Director 
General, who fully realized that the obdurate Executives 
were powerless against Mr. Frick’s complete reversal of 
his own position, must have been intense. Writing of 


the results years afterward, in response to an inquiry, 
he said: 


Mr. Frick’s attitude was exactly in line with what you said. 
Although in his letter of October 17th he was most emphatic that 
there ought to be a large and immediate increase in freight rates, 
yet when he had considered the explanation which I placed before 
him he stated in his letter of October 27th that he was ‘‘inclined 
to the belief from the accompanying letters and what you say, 
that you could not well have taken any other course,’’ and indi- 
cates that instead of an immediate rate increase ‘‘the only thing to 
do is to turn the railroads back to their owners with a guaranty 
for several months—probably as long as a year—or until proper 
railroad legislation can be secured.”’ 

The thing turned out much in line with Mr. Frick’s idea as thus 
expressed. It had already been announced that the railroads would 
be turned back on December 31st, 1919, and Congress was actively 
engaged in shaping comprehensive railroad legislation. This legis- 
lation included a six months’ guaranty, within which time the 
Interstate Commerce Commission made a very heavy rate increase, 
—substantially greater than Mr. Frick recommended and far 
greater than anything that would have been possible during the 
last days of Federal control. 

As a matter of fact, in order to enable Congress to complete the 
legislation, the actual turning back of the railroads did not take 


287 


Frick the Man 


place until March 1st, 1920, and the President signed the new 
railroad legislation on February 28th. 
Sincerely yours, 
Wa xer D, Hinzs. 

That this achievement of Mr. Hines, thus aided by 
Mr. Frick, counted for one of the most powerful factors 
in averting a deplorable renewal of hostility to rate ad- 
vafices seems now to be undeniable. 

It is, moreover, a noteworthy circumstance, with re- 
spect to this biographical record, that this was the last 
and perhaps, from a public standpoint, the most helpful 
act of a business and financial nature in the career of 
Henry Clay Frick. 


288 


xX XI 
Public Affairs 


LTH OUGH Mr. Frick had several opportunities to 
enter public life, he was really tempted but 
once. That was in 1880 when he was offered 
a Republican nomination for Congress. The 
time was propitious and the proposal alluring. He was 
thirty years old, had just made his first million, was 
master of an established business which did not require 


his exclusive attention, and his inclination was to 
broader fields. The position which he had attained in 
the community had brought the proffer to him unsought 
and a nomination was equivalent to an election. He had 
been too fully occupied to take an active part in politics 
but, like his grandfather before him, he had felt a keen 
interest in all public affairs. Naturally, too, he was flat- 
tered to be thus singled out by the leaders as the one 
young man most likely to reflect credit upon the district. 

One morning, after having transacted his business at 
the Mellon bank, he made casual allusion to the matter 
but, as he sought no advice, none was volunteered. 

‘“He is getting ambitious,’’ the Judge remarked to his 
son Andrew when he had left, ‘‘but he would be foolish 
to take it.”’ 

‘“Never fear,’’ came the rejoinder, ‘“‘he often jumps at 
a thing but he never decides until he has taken time to 

289 


Frick the Man 


think it out and then he is pretty sure to reach the right 
conclusion.”’ 

The next day he announced perfunctorily that he had 
declined the offer and thanked his friends for their com- 
mendation of his judgment. 

“It is always a mistake for a good business man to 
take public office,’’ mused Mr. Andrew Mellon, recalling 
the incident some forty years later, while gazing medi- 
tatively at the Washington monument from the office of 
the Secretary of the Treasury. 

Mr. Frick’s closest political associate was Philander 
C. Knox and far-reaching consequences were attributable 
to their mutual fidelity. Never a seeker of office for him- 
self, Mr. Frick was always chary of urging the candida- 
cies of others outside of his own State but, feeling in 1896 
that his notably effective support of the Republican 
ticket might justify the breaking of his rule, he paid his 
friend the following striking tribute in a letter to the 
President-elect: 


Pittsburgh. 
Dec. 16th, 1896. 
Hon. William McKinley, 
Canton, Ohio. 
Dear Sir:—- 

Knowing how great have been the demands upon your time, I 
have refrained from writing to extend my congratulations, but I 
feel that I must trespass upon your patience in regard to a matter 
in which I take a sincere personal interest. 

The Pittsburgh papers, have, as you have doubtless seen, several 
times referred to P. C. Knox, Esq., as a possible appointee to the 
position of Attorney General under your administration. It has 
been my idea that a President should be free to choose his advisers 
without pressure or solicitations from outsiders, but as custom 


290 


Public Affairs 


seems to have made it permissible to present names for your con- 
sideration, I venture to call your attention to the merits of Mr. 
Knox. 

I have known him through both business and personal relations, 
I may say intimately, for twenty years past. As counsel for the 
Carnegie Company, and other interests with which I have been 
connected, I have had abundant opportunity, from a business 
man’s standpoint, to judge of his ability as a lawyer and his char- 
acter as a man. You are better qualified to judge of his legal edu- 
cation, but the estimation in which his brother lawyers hold him, 
having lately elected him President of the State Bar Association, 
would seem sufficient evidence upon that point. 

Mr. Knox possesses certain traits which it seems to me would be 
especially valuable in such a position. He has well been described 
to me by a Pittsburgh lawyer as a crystal thinker, and his state- 
ments ate always clear and to the point, but what is more im- 
portant, he is an independent adviser, by which I mean that he 
does not trim his advice to suit the desire of his client, but if in his 
judgment the proposed course is unwise, or wrong, he does not 
hesitate to say so. He is intensely loyal, not only to the interests 
of his clients, but as a friend, as I can especially testify, for I have 
gone through some troublesome times, when he has stood faith- 
fully beside me. 

Let me venture to say that, if you are considering the desirability 
of giving Pennsylvania a representative in your Cabinet, that you 
could not find a more loyal lieutenant. I think I may say also that 
his appointment would be entirely satisfactory to both factions of 
the party in this State, and perhaps might be a step towards a very 
much desired harmonizing of masters in State politics. 


With great respect, 
Yours, &c., 
H. C. Frick. 


President McKinley made the tender, which Mr. Knox 
felt constrained to decline for financial reasons of a per- 
sonal nature which, he ingenuously added, might not sub- 
sist four years later, at the end of which the offer was, in 


fact, renewed and accepted. 
291 


Frick the Man 


So it came about that, but for his own disinclination, 
Mr. Frick would have become Senator for Pennsylvania 
in 1904 when, following the death of Senator Quay, At- 
torney General Knox and ex-Senator Donald Cameron, 
representing the dominant Republican oligarchy, waited 
upon him and offered him the ad interim appointment 
to be supplemented by an election for the full term in 
1905. Taken completely by surprise, he demurred but by 
their earnest request withheld a positive refusal for a few 
days. Thereupon Mr. Knox appealed to President Roose- 
velt for aid and on May 27th wrote to Mr. Frick: 


The President was very much delighted about the matter you, 
Cameron and I discussed, and I sincerely hope that you will not 
interfere with its going through. 

But in the meantime Mr. Frick had reached a decision 
and three days later replied: 


Regarding the other matter. I am decidedly of the opinion that 
I should adhere to my determination not to accept any position, 
however prominent, even if it could be secured without much 
effort. I certainly appreciate most highly the fact that I have some 
friends who think I might satisfactorily fill such a position. 

Being assured over the telephone that this was final, 
Mr. Knox with characteristic frankness announced that, 
in that case, his own name might be considered, and Mr. 
Frick did not rest until he had obtained the pledges req- 
uisite to his election. 

Mr. Knox resigned in 1909 to become Secretary of State 
under Mr. Taft and, subsequently being again returned 
to the Senate largely through Mr. Frick’s influence, was 
enabled, in the year following the latter's death, to in- 
duce President-elect Harding to appoint their mutual 

292 


Public Affairs 


friend, Mr. Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury. 

Besought a second time to permit his name to be used 
in connection with the Senatorship, again, ina letter to 
ex-Senator Cameron, Mr. Frick definitely refused upon 
the ground that he had “‘no political ambition.”’ 

Mr. Frick was a staunch Republican of the type of 
George F. Edmunds, who held to his dying day that 
“the Democratic party never was, is not now and never 
will be fit to govern the United States.’’ But the prepon- 
derance of voters in Pennsylvania who shared this view 
was so overwhelming that there arose no occasion for 
partisan service following the retirement of the solitary 
Democratic Governor, Mr. Robert E. Pattison, and his 
support was restricted to modest, though invariable, 
contributions “‘to maintain the organization.’’ Dis- 
gusted at being forced into a defiance of his party’s man- 
agers during the Homestead strike, he refrained there- 
after from public declaration of his personal preferences 
as between candidates but he never hesitated to voice 
privately his opinions. 

‘I thoroughly agree with you,’’ he wrote to Mr. John 
W. Gates on January 26th, 1896, ‘‘that Thomas B. Reed 
is the man for President. He is my first choice and has 
been since his name was first mentioned.”’ 

A month later, however, without changing his view, 
he could not resist the appeal of a friend and wrote to 
Mr. J.C. Morse of the Illinois Steel Company: 


It looks now as if there was going to be quite a struggle for the 
Republican nomination for President. On Saturday I had an inter- 
view with Senator Quay who told me he was going to try to secure 


293 


Frick the Man 


the nomination, and he thought his chances were very good, al- 
though he admitted that at the present time McKinley seemed to 
be in the lead. Quay would make a splendid President, from what 
I know of him. He is a man on whose word you can absolutely 
rely, and has much greater ability than is generally conceded him. 
If he does not get the nomination for himself, I am inclined to 
think he will be in a position to name the successful man. In that 
event, it will not be McKinley, in my opinion. 


But Mr. McKinley was nominated and elected after a 
desperate struggle with Mr. Bryan. Immediately there 
arose a powerful demand from manufacturers for an ex- 
cessively upward revision of tariff rates and the House 
of Representatives responded readily. But fortunately for 
the Republican party its Senate leader, Mr. Nelson W. 
Aldrich, experienced and far-sighted, had not forgotten 
the disaster of 1892 generally accredited in about equal 
proportions to the ill-fated McKinley Bill and the Home- 
stead warfare, and he grimly determined to avert a pos- 
sible repetition. 

The task was not easy. Industrialists and manufac- 
turers, in common with capitalists and bankers, had 
dumped millions into Mr. Hanna’s war chest to accom- 
plish the defeat of Mr. Bryan and their calls for recom- 
pense were both insistent and extortionate. As a result 
of this pressure, the steel industry had been particularly 
and most unduly favored by the House of Representa- 
tives, and it was this circumstance, oddly, that sug- 
gested to Mr. Aldrich a move which must be reckoned 
among the most adroit ever conceived even by his 
extraordinary mind. Taking pen in hand, he wrote the 
following letter: 


294 


Public Affairs 


United States Senate 
Washington, D.C. 
Dear Mr. Frick:— March 29th, 1897. 


I am very anxious to talk with someone connected with your 
concern or otherwise, who would be willing to give me reliable 
information in regard to the present condition of the different 
branches of the iron and steel industry, and who would make sug- 
gestions as to the proper relative rates of duty upon different prod- 
ucts. I would treat all information and suggestions as strictly 
confidential. 

I believe that it is extremely important to the country, and to 
the iron and steel industry, that there should be no excessive rates 
levied in any portion of the new tariff bill, and I cannot help 
thinking that some of those suggested by the Ways and Means 
Committee in the metal schedule are unnecessarily high. 


Very truly yours 
Netson W. ALDRICH. 


Senator Aldrich’s purposes, now revealed for the first 
time to our knowledge in this seemingly naive commu- 
nication, were manifold, concentrated into one,— to save 
the Republican party from the perpetration of a second 
blunder which to his politic mind bade fair to prove 
worse than a crime. To modify the claims of the tariff 
barons through presentation of facts proving them to be 
excessive and greedy; to appease capital by testimony of 
the man who then stood forth as the foremost champion 
of property rights; to confound political opponents who 
eagerly awaited evidences of Republican subserviency 
to the moneyed power which undoubtedly had restored 
its political supremacy; to surprise and gratify the great 
body of consumers whostill believed that they were being 

295 


Frick the Man 


mulcted in the interest of the few; to justify Protection 
as an economic principle operating to the advantage of 
the whole country and of all the people; to show from 
practice that tariffs ‘“‘for revenue only’’ resulted in de- 
pression and dearth of employment while moderate, 
scientifically adjusted “‘protective’’ duties produced ad- 
vancement and prosperity,—these were the essentials of 
re-establishment of the Republican party upon a sound 
and enduring basis. 

So the sagacious leader went for aid straight to head- 
quarters, to the head of the greatest metal manufactur- 
ing unit which had most to lose or to gain, to the oper- 
ator whose facts and figures were at his finger tips and 
could not be confuted, whose skill had been directed to 
reduction of costs and corresponding increases in wages 
through inventive processes, resulting in lower prices 
for larger production to consumers, to the employer who 
could not be denied by capital and, by ordeal of battle, 
had actually won the favor of labor,—and his appeal, 
not to the selfishness, but to the wisdom and reason and 
broad vision of this man was not made in vain. 

There was no delay. The minds of Mr. Carnegie and 
Mr. Frick, the one perhaps altruistically, the other surely 
practically, had met long before in realization that the 
high protection under which their industry had thrived — 
had reached its peak of necessity or advantage and that 
gradual subsidence from artificial planes to natural bases 
had become the part of wisdom in striving for an im- 
pregnable position. Consultation was not requisite. Mr. 
Frick replied immediately: 

296 


Public Affairs 


My dear Mr. Aldrich :— Marcagzstnn8o7. 

Acknowledging receipt of your esteemed favor of the 29th: 

I beg to say that we will be glad to give you any information as 
to the present condition of the different branches of the Iron and 
Steel industries we can, if you will kindly write, specifying just 
what information you would like. 

We entirely agree with you that it is extremely important for 
every one that there should be no excessive rates levied in any 
portion of the new tariff bill. 

We have had some communication with Mr. Swank, of Phila- 
delphia, and have said to him, among other things, as follows: 

“If a bill can be passed which even our opponents will consider 
moderate, and which keeps primarily in view increased revenue, 
we shall have done a great day’s work for Protection. It is not in 
the increase of duties that our advantage lies so much as in the 
change from advalorem to specific duties, and the leaders of every 
branch of manufacturies should be required to submit schedules of 
specific duties as far as possible. The undervaluations going on are 
scandalous, and rapidly driving honest importers out of the busi- 
ness. Speaking broadly, we do not know anything in the Iron and 
Steel Schedule that requires increased duties. Of course Cotton 
Ties should be taken from the free list, and made to pay, say one- 
half of the duty imposed by the ‘McKinley Bill’.”’ 

We have preferred thus far to leave this matter with Mr. Swank, 
after giving him our views, as he is well posted, or should be, as 
to what is generally needed, or wanted, by the Iron and Steel 
Manufacturers. 

Very respectfully yours 
H. C. Frick. 


The metal schedules presented by the House of Repre- 
sentatives were studied carefully anew by Mr. Frick and 
his associates and revised sharply but accurately down- 
ward conjointly with Senator Aldrich and his advisers, 
to the end that the strong leader easily won the approval 
of his own chamber and scored perhaps the most notable 
of his many triumphs in conference. To Aldrich, credit 

297 


Frick the Man 


for the sagacious idea; to Frick, thanks largely for the 
successful performance; so the record stands; and, both 
being men looking always to results without exploita- 
tion, the inwardness of the achievement was never fe- 
vealed. 

Mr. Frick was so fully occupied trying to save his for- 
tune that he paid slight attention to the National cam- 
paign of 1900, the result of which in any case seemed 
to be assured, but he took a most active interest in 1904 
on behalf of President Roosevelt, with whom casual ac- 
quaintance had been ripened by mutual respect and ad- 
miration into close personal relationship. 

“T feel,’’ wrote the President in 1903 in a cordial letter 
asking him to serve on the Isthmian Canal Commission, 
“that no man’s name in the country would carry more 
weight than yours,’’ and Mr. Frick, while constrained 
to decline, added heartily, ‘“Your administration has 
my warmest endorsement and where I feel I can be of 
service 1am yours to command.”’ 

The time came during the following year when Mr. 
Roosevelt became so surprisingly and needlessly alarmed 
at what he regarded as his prospective defeat that he 
drew upon all available sources for aid. Mr. Frick re- 
sponded promptly and generously with both time and 
money, consulting frequently with Chairman Cortelyou, 
persuading Mr. Cornelius N. Bliss to accept the treasury- 
ship, effecting a temporary reconciliation of Mr. E. H. 
Harriman with the President, selecting a Pittsburgh 
finance committee whose initial contribution was $100,- 
ooo, personally subscribing even mote than that and 

298 


Public Affairs 


abandoning his customary trip to Europe in order that 
he might remain within call to do whatever might be 
asked of him. Immensely gratified by the result, he tele- 
graphed the President on election night: 

The endorsement of yourself and your policies by your fellow 


citizens is magnificent and truly well deserved. Cordial congratu- 
lations! 


Bee hice. 

Shortly after the election, the inside struggle for con- 
trol of the Equitable Assurance Society, of which Mr. 
Frick had become a trustee, approached a climax and he 
joined with other prominent Republicans in trying to 
effect a solution by obtaining the appointment of Mr. 
James H. Hyde as Ambassador to France, but the best 
the President could be persuaded to offer was the Min- 
istry to Belgium, which the young man promptly de- 
clined, and the insurance investigation which brought 
Mr. Charles Evans Hughes into public life ensued. With 
this unimportant exception, the relations of Mr. Roose- 
velt and Mr. Frick seem to have been wholly social until 
the latter part of 1905, when the latter, replying to the 
President’s request that he find a position for a friend, 
expressed his views on the railway strike situation in 
the following communication: 


October 27th, 1905. 
Dear Mr. President :— 


Your personal note of the sixteenth regarding Mr. Loomis just 
received, having been wrongly addressed. 

There is no opening at present suitable for Mr. Loomis. Presi- 
dent Corey of the Steel Corporation, however, will, through Mr. 
Bacon invite Loomis to call on him and it is possible he can be 
placed in the near future. We are extremely anxious to secure 


299 


Frick the Man 


orders for battleships and cruisers from Russia, and in this con- 
nection may be able to use him. 

Your visit to the South has been very successful, and no doubt 
of great benefit; and I congratulate you. 

I am pleased to note that you have not in any respect departed 
from your previous public announcement that you do not favor 
any legislation or action which will injure or retard business pros- 
perity or interfere with private property. I am sure the members of 
your Cabinet and others in authority will be influenced by your 
conclusions. This is particularly applicable at the present time to 
the Department of Commerce and Labor. | 

Also, I believe with you that the demand for legislation relating 
to transportation rates is imperative and pressing. It seems to me 
that the idea of placing the power in a commission to originate 
rates is more or less impracticable, and would result in fixing them 
on a basis of mileage, which, in view of widely different conditions, 
as applied to different localities, would be unjust and unreasonable. 
By this I mean the commission should not have the right to fix 
rates generally nor except on complaint in specific cases that rates 
put in force by the railroad are unreasonable. : 

But I think the evils which now exist may be overcome without 
any legislation which will seriously damage property rights or the 
great railroad business of the country so closely identified with 
business prosperity. What we need is a prevention of unjust rates, 
and, particularly, unjust discrimination, and a prompt remedy for 
existing wrongs. I think there should be created a court or courts, 
with competent, adequate and final jurisdiction, whose duties 
should be confined to the disposition of rate cases; or, if additional 
jurisdiction is given, the rate cases should always have preference 
as to disposition. 

Also, there should be an Interstate Commerce Commission, com- 
posed of, say, nine of the highest ability and standing, which 
might perhaps sit in groups of three in different parts of the coun- 
try, or in a body, as circumstances might require, to whom com- 
plaints might be made. This committee should have power to 
secure the evidence applicable, and its decision should go into 
immediate effect, with heavy penalties for violation, unless an 
appeal should be promptly presented to the court above referred 
to. In case of appeal, the appellant should be required to give bond 


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Public Affairs 


to cover damages and costs. If the decision appealed from be sus- 
tained the judgment of the court would date from the time of the 
decision by the commission, and the bond would protect the ag- 
grieved party; and, in either case, the loser should pay all costs 
including reasonable attorneys fees. Possibly the complaining party 
at the outset should file a bond to cover costs in case he is finally 
unsuccessful. Under such a law very few appeals would be taken; 
and in any event both sides to a controversy would be fully pro- 
tected. 

Cordial congratulations. Many and happy returns of this day. 
(Mr. Roosevelt’s birthday.) 

With great respect, always, 

Sincerely yours 
H. C. Frick. 

The position subsequently assumed by the President 
clearly indicated that his course was influenced by atten- 
tive consideration to these sensible suggestions,—greatly, 
no doubt, to the gratification of Mr. Frick,—and the 
cordial relationship continued. 

Two years elapsed, however, before the two men were 
brought into contact by questions bearing upon public 
policy and governmental action. The autumn of 1907 
found the business and financial worlds in a state of un- 
rest and apprehension. President Roosevelt's warfare on 
the trusts had already produced, under the Sherman law, 
six important actions, of which two had been won and 
four were pending, and no less than thirty-four prose- 
cutions under the Elkins act forbidding the giving or 
acceptance of rebates, involving large sums of money, 
were under way. Nobody could tell where the headsman’s 
axe would fall next, large business was rapidly approach- 
ing paralysis and financial conditions were distinctly 
alarming. 

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Frick the Man 


Although the country banks had drawn as heavily as 
possible upon their reserves in New York, they were un- 
able to supply their customers and were calling all col- 
lectable loans, while in the city itself runs were begin- 
ning on many small banks and were seriously menacing 
two big trust companies. Large depositors had not been 
denied but they were well aware that they could not get 
their money and, for mutual protection, they refrained 
from asking. The fright had not yet become so wide- 
spread as to present unmistakable signs of a panic, but 
it was becoming more general daily and only the light- 
ing of a match was needed to explode the magazine. 

Bankers were meeting nightly in Mr. J. P. Morgan's 
library, often remaining till daybreak, studying reports, 
investigating rumors, recapitulating resources and mak- 
ing tentative plans to meet any contingencies that might 
arise, under the direction of the most courageous financier 
of his time. All appreciated the magnitude of the danger 
but none could foresee the extent of the disaster and suffer- 
ing that would inevitably ensue from a general panic, 
once become nation-wide and irresistible. 

The supreme test came in the last week of October, 
when the fact transpired that the key of the situation 
lay in a stock brokerage house. Moore and Schley, one 
of the largest firms in the country, were heavy borrowers 
of money from financial institutions, not only in New 
York but in Philadelphia and Chicago, with which they 
had deposited, along with other collateral securities, a 
huge number of shares of the Tennessee Coal and Iron 
Company which, the exigencies of the time quickly de- 

302 


Public Affairs 


veloped, had no market value. If some other disposition 
could not be made of this large block of stock, not only 
would the firm be forced into bankruptcy but many of 
the lending banks throughout the country would also 
be imperilled. 

Among the friends of Moore and Schley was Colonel 
Oliver H. Payne, who had exchanged with them mil- 
lions of current securities for these useless shares, hoping 
to tide them over the crisis. But the effort was unavail- 
ing and, simultaneously with the failure of a Providence 
trust company and the issuance of clearing-house certifi- 
cates, Colonel Payne put the matter before his attorney, 
Lewis Cass Ledyard, Esq., and directed him to place it 
before Mr. Morgan, with expression of his own belief that 
a smash was inevitable unless the United States Steel Cor- 
poration could see its way clear to purchase the Tennessee 
shares at a price that would relieve the brokers. Four years 
later, in testifying before a Congressional committee, 
Mr. Ledyard recounted the subsequent happenings. 

Mr. Morgan was deeply concerned. “It is very serious, ’ 
he said, ‘the most serious thing that has appeared in con- 
nection with the panic. If Moore and Schley go, there’s 
no telling what the effect will be on Wall Street and the 
financial institutions or how many houses will go with 
them or how many banks throughout the country will 
go down. I will see what can be done about it at once.” 

Judge Gary and Mr. Frick were summoned by tele- 
phone. Both were familiar with the Tennessee property. 
Neither considered the stock worth more than $60 a 
share and neither approved buying it then at any price, 

303 


Frick the Man 


fearing that its absorption might invite a government 
suit under the anti-trust act such as was then pending 
against the Standard Oil Company. 

“I do not know,’’ ejaculated Mr. Morgan, ‘‘whether 
the United States Steel Corporation can afford to buy 
this stock or not, but I will say that, in my opinion, if 
it does not or unless someone furnishes immediate relief, 
no man on earth can say what the effect will be on the 
financial institutions of the country under these critical 
conditions.”’ 

Others were called in and conference followed con- 
ference in rapid succession during the night. Mr. Frick 
was visibly impressed by Mr. Morgan’s argument and 
finally admitted that, in so perilous a condition, the in- 
terests of the whole country should be regarded as para- 
mount and that, if necessary to avert the disastrous con- 
sequences of a vast panic, the Steel Corporation should 
not hesitate to pay an excessive price for the stock; and 
yet at the last moment before definitely registering his 
assent, he forsook the conference and sought Mr. Led- 
yard, who testified as follows: 


Mr. Frick came into the room where I was, and he said, ‘“Mr. 
Ledyard, I want to ask you something. I have known you for 
years, and J know you very well, and I depend absolutely upon 
what you say. Have you looked into this situation yourself of 
Moore & Schley?’ I said, ‘“Mr. Frick, I have looked into it to the 
extent I have been able. I have not been personally over their 
books, but I have been over it with their bookkeepers, and I have 
been over it with Mr. Schley, and I have done what I can to 
familiarize myself with their affairs and the necessities of their 
condition."’ He said, *‘Are you of the opinion, from what you 
have seen and from what information you have gathered—are you 


304 


Public Affairs 


frankly of the opinion that nothing less than par will pull these 
people out and save them?”’ I said, ‘‘I am, Mr. Frick. I do not 
think any less than par for the Tennessee stock will pull them out, 
and I do not know whether that will do it, but I think it will.’’ 
He said, ‘‘Very good, Mr. Ledyard; if you say so, that is the end 
of the entire question for me.”’ 


The question of the stock purchase was thus disposed 
of. But the apprehension respecting governmental prose- 
cution was still grave to the mind of Judge Gary, who 
gave this testimony: 


I said to Mr. Morgan, “In the first place, I would not think of 
considering the purchase of this stock without going to Washing- 
ton first and taking the matter up with the President or the De- 
partment of Justice, or both.’’ He said,’*‘Why? Have they any 
right to say whether you buy or not?’’ I said, ‘“No; they have not. 
But here is a financial crisis, and from your standpoint the object 
of buying this stock would be to allay this storm, to assist in ovet- 
coming this panic, and if the Department of Justice or the President 
should find out we had purchased, or were about to purchase it, 
and should enjoin us from purchasing on the ground that it would 
add to our holdings and thereby raise the question of creating or 
adding to a monopoly, you can see at once that what we had done 
would be to make the financial conditions very much worse than 
they are now; and therefore, it seems to me, we ought to know 
how the President and the Department of Justice would feel about 
the question.’’ He said, *‘Well, I think that is very forcible, and I 
see no objection to your going over there if you feel like it.”’ 


But Mr. Morgan was still dubious and did not make 
his half-hearted assent definite until, at his earnest in- 
sistence and greatly against his own inclination, Mr. 
Frick agreed to join with Judge Gary in presenting the 
case to the President. Time was a vital factor in the un- 
dertaking. It was Sunday evening and announcement of 

305 


Frick the Man 


the completion of the transaction with the approval of 
the government was deemed essential to obviate calami- 
tous frenzy on the Stock Exchange at its opening at 10 
o'clock on the following morning. 

The story of the subsequent happenings is familiar. A 
special train bore the two commissioners to Washington 
in the early morning hours; the President was induced to 
leave his breakfast untouched to hear them; in the absence 
of Attorney General Bonaparte, Secretary Root was hastily 
summoned and, before the gong sounded in the Stock Ex- 
change, the glad tidings had swept through Wall Street 
that the menace of the Tennessee steel pool no longer 
existed, that United States Steel bonds would be sub- 
stituted immediately for the uncurrent shares, that the 
big brokerage house was saved from dissolution and that 
President Roosevelt had personally assured Messts. Frick 
and Gary, upon the legal advice of Mr. Root that, ‘while 
he could not advise them to take the action proposed, he 
felt it no public duty of his to interpose any objection.” 

This ‘‘good enough Morgan”’ saved the situation and 
the two commissioners returned from Washington the 
recipients of hearty congratulations and many expres- 
sions of gratitude. 

But Mr. Frick, now thoroughly aroused, soon realized 
that only a breathing spell had been gained and that 
heavier clouds still hovered over the financial and indus- 
trialconditions of thecountry. Most threatening of these, 
to his mind, which turned invariably to the common 
advantages of consolidation and concentration, was the 

306 


Public Affairs 


government suit pending for the dissolution of the Stand- 
ard Oil Company. If that could be settled out of court 
upon terms which would effect practical compliance with 
the anti-trust law by ensuring full protection of the pub- 
lic through some form of governmental supervision and 
regulation, without depriving the producers of their le- 
gitimate opportunities, he became convinced that an 
enormous revival of business and corresponding resto- 
ration of universal prosperity would follow promptly. 

Having no interest in the oil concern and being averse 
on principle to interference with other people’s business, 
he hesitated to make even a gesture along the natural 
line but finally, after carefully studying the grounds of 
complaint and conferring with Judge Gary, he sought 
the advice of Senator Knox as to the advisability and 
propriety of requesting an informal interview with the 
President, in the hope of supplementing the successful 
outcome of their recent conversation. 

“T think,’’ Senator Knox replied, “‘that it is always a 
help to the President to talk with you and Judge Gary, 
and such a talk at this time would be helpful to the 
general situation irrespective of the results in the partic- 
ular matter. With respect to that, nothing can be done 
except it meets with his approval and therefore, Mr. 
Kellogg consenting, it would be best in my view to take 
it up directly with the President if you think it possible 
to get him to agree to anything the other side would 
accept.’ 

Whereupon Mr. Frick, still reluctant but emboldened 


3°97 


Frick the Man 


by the President’s previous reception, addressed the fol- 
lowing communication to Mr. Roosevelt: 


New York, 
Personal November 30th, 1907. 
My dear Mr. President :— 

For some time Judge Gary and I have been considering the pos- 
sibility of some disposition of the pending suit brought by the 
Government against the Standard Oil Company which would be 
satisfactory to the Government and to the public generally, and at 
the same time might be accepted by, if not entirely satisfactory to, 
the defender. é 

I think there is no doubt this litigation materially affects the 
business situation and very greatly adds to the feeling of financial 
uncertainty which exists in this country and other countries. It is 
not necessary at this time to discuss its merits. No doubt you and I 
would agree as to where the responsibility lies. But conditions are 
very grave and are not improving as we could wish. The impor- 
tance of the subject-matter cannot be over-estimated. My interest 
in the question is confined to the public welfare. 

Judge Gary and I have discussed the propriety of consulting you 
in regard to this matter. We have had some conversation with Mr. 
Kellogg upon this subject. We stated to him that we might desire 
to talk with you; and understand that he does not object. It is our 
intention to keep the matter very confidential. If you think favor- 
ably of my suggestion, it would be the effort of Judge Gary and 
myself from an independent standpoint and solely in the public 
interest to get into communication with those who control the 
defense and ascertain exactly what can be done, using our influence 
to bring about such a solution as would be satisfactory to the 
Administration and yet protect the properties involved. 

If in your opinion what I propose is impracticable or improper or 
unwelcome, of course I know you will say so frankly. 

Sincerely yours, 
H. C, Frick. 


Three days later, probably after conference with his 
advisers, the President replied: 
308 


Public Affairs 


Tse Wuite Housz 
WASHINGTON 


December 3rd, 1907. 
My dear Mr. Frick: 


Your letter of the 30th ultimo was duly received. I should al- 
ways be glad to see you and Judge Gary on any matter, but it 
seems to me that the only wise course in the case of a suit before 
the Department of Justice is to have the communication come from 
the counsel of the Standard Oil Companyto the counsel of the Gov- 
ernment. While, as I say, I should be glad to see you and Judge 
Gary, the only possible outcome of any talk with me would be 
that I should ask you to have the Standard Oil Company, thru its 
counsel, formulate any proposals and put them before Mr. Kellogg, 
who would then go over them with the Attorney General, and 
afterwards, if it was necessary, they would be brought before me. 
I hope you understand the reasons which actuate me in writing 
thus. I think if you will go over the matter with Judge Gary you 
will see that it would be inadvisable for me, from the standpoint 
of the Government, to take any other course; and I think Knox 
would tell you so if you would consult him. 


With regard, believe me, 
Sincerely yours, 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 


The courteous but definite response, restricting negoti- 
ations strictly to official channels, disposed of the sug- 
gestion, and Mr. Frick, though naturally disappointed 
at being denied the privilege of placing the outlines of 
the plan which he had conceived to be a possible prac- 
tical solution before Messrs. Roosevelt and Rockefeller 
personally, abandoned the attempt with a sense of relief 
rather than of resentment. 

Mr. Frick supported Mr. Taft, as a “‘regular,’’ from 
force of habit. After having contributed through vari- 
ous channels sums aggregating $50,000, he replied to an 

309 


Frick the Man 


earnest solicitation from Mr. Charles D. Hilles for an 
additional subscription at the last moment: 


Pripz’s Crossinc 
MassacHUSETTS 
November 2nd, 1912. 
My dear Mr. Hilles: 

I am just in receipt of your favor of the first. I think President 
Taft has no show for reelection on Tuesday next. I have contrib- 
uted, as you state, towards the campaign and I would contribute 
almost any amount to insure the success of the Republican party if 
I thought there was a chance. But I think I should not have been 
asked to contribute to this campaign. 

The administration utterly failed to treat many of its warmest 
friends fairly. Take for instance, the case of the suit against the 
United States Steel Corporation, in which they charge me with 
misrepresenting very important matters to the President in order 
to enable the Steel Company to purchase a property which I was 
always opposed to its buying at any price. After much discussion I 
was prevailed on to go to Washington, as its purchase looked as if 
it would save the country from a very disastrous panic. 

Much to my surprise Secretary Knox, when I last saw him, told 
me the bringing of the suit had never been brought before the 
cabinet. The President, I think, also told me that he did not know 
that such a charge in the suit was to be made against me. This 
shows a great lack of interest in very important matters on the 
part of the President and his Secretary, Mr. Knox. 

I write you thus fully as 1 do not want my position misunder- 


stood. 
Sincerely yours, 


H. C. Frick. 


Although Mr. Frick obviously felt aggrieved by such 
misrepresentation of his own position by the govern- 
ment and seemed quite willing that Mr. Taft and even 
Mr. Knox should be informed of the fact, his chief com- 
plaint was of what he regarded as a breach of faith on 

310 


Public Affairs 


the part of the Attorney General, to whom Judge Gary 
reported to the Board he had pledged prompt correction 
of any practices which the Department should give notice 
were deemed illegal or improper, and Mr. Wickersham 
had tacitly acquiesced in this arrangement. Nevertheless, 
shortly thereafter, according toJudgeGary’s biographer, 
without specifying a single objection, or suggesting the 
slightest change, Mr. Wickersham mentioned casually to 
Judge Gary at a dinner that the excitement over the 
Stanley investigation, the hostility to the Steel Corpo- 
ration and the charges of its being favored by the Ad- 
ministration led the Administration to feel that it must 
bring suit for dissolution of the corporation. Mr. Gary 
confessed himself ‘“‘overwhelmed”’ by this announcement 
and Mr. Frick was highly indignant at what he con- 
sidered a contemptible admission of yielding to polliti- 
cal exigencies, at the cost of simple right and a solemn 
pledge. It may be mentioned, in passing, that the suit was 
brought and dragged through the courts, at heavy cost, 
for seven years, only to fail in the end, but Mr. Frick 
did not forget. Writing to Secretary Knox in 1915, he 
said: 

I see by the press that Mr. George W. Wickersham is making 
himself quite prominent in calling and conferring with Mr. Hughes, 
and leaving the impression that he is his chief adviser. It will cool 
the ardor of a great many friends of the nominee if they are left 
under the impression that that gentleman is to be prominent in the 
coming administration. I wish some one would give Mr. Hughes 
an intimation of this. Of course, we want everyone’s assistance, 
but I should be sorry to think that after election Mr. Hughes 
might feel obliged to give Mr. Wickersham a prominent place in 
his administration. 


311 


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XXII 


The Patriot 


1G Business accepted the return of the Dem- 

Ocratic party to power in 1913, without serious 

misgivings, as the inevitable consequence of 

a Republican row which had been universally 

“‘discounted’’ by Wall Street. Republican capitalists 

pronounced Mr. Roosevelt responsible and tranquilly 

reconciled themselves to the prospect of a respite in 

business which they hoped might not run into general 
depression. 

They felt no animosity toward Mr. Wilson for such of 
his utterances as they regarded as radical and menacing 
to their interests. He had simply played the political 
game, after the manner of a candidate to whom American 
tradition had accorded much latitude, in his choice of 
methods and varied appeals to discordant elements. Many 
believed that at heart he was conservative, as befitted a 
highly intelligent student of government, and that, once 
confronted by the grave responsibilities of authority, he 
would revert to the call of his reasoning faculties. In 
any case he was *‘safer than Roosevelt’’; so perhaps, after 
all, an interlude in control by the only party really fit to 
govern might serve an excellent purpose in conveying a 
needed lesson to the Republican politicians upon whom 
Big Business relied for intelligent pursuit of their trade. 

313 


Frick the Man 


But while sojourning in Bermuda for rest and reflection 
immediately following his election Mr. Wilson derived 
either from some undisclosed source or from his own 
imagination an impression that Wall Street was con- 
spiring to discredit his administration from the start and, 
upon his return, he publicly assumed a belligerent and 
menacing attitude. After heralding at a banquet of the 
Southern Society his suspicion that the moneyed power 
was fomenting a panic “‘to create the impression that 
the wrong thing is going to be done,”’ he said: 

I do not believe there is any man living who dares to use that 
machinery to create such a panic. And if any one attempts it I 
promise you that I will build the gibbet for him as high as Haman’s. 
But that is only figuratively speaking. What I will do will be to 
direct the attention of the people to him, and I think that they 
will manage to cut him to the quick. With their eyes open, the 
people are not going to let any man do such a thing. 

What precisely this mystifying and startling decla- 
ration foreboded nobody assumed to know, since nothing 
whatever had transpired from Wall Street so likely to 
arouse panicky apprehensions as the utterance itself. Even 
so, somewhat oddly, manifestations of alarm and remon- 
strance were confined chiefly to the columns of public 
journals which had supported Mr. Wilson’s candidacy; 
Capital, as represented by “‘the Street,’’ remained un- 
ruffled and apparently passive. Large undertakings on 
the part especially of railway corporations were not aban- 
doned; they were not even put aside; they were merely 
subjected to a process, so quiet as to be hardly noticeable, 
of masterly inactivity. 


314 


The Patriot 


“It is a time to abide events,’’ was the calm advice of 
Mr. Frick, who arranged accordingly to prolong his 
usual stay abroad in search of Old Masters. 

This was the last of his many visits abroad. Disturbed 
by the Continental outlook in the Summer of 1914, he 
remained at home as a precautionary measure bearing 
upon his heavy responsibilities and was at Pride’s when 
the live coals which he had been carefully watching 
flicker in the furnaces of Europe burst into flame. 

In common with the great majority of thoughtful 
Americans, he simply adhered to his own admonition to 
his friends at the beginning of the war to “‘stand with 
the President,’’ and he did not grieve when the responsi- 
bility continued undivided as the result of Democratic 
success at the Congressional elections. But his sympathies 
were strong with the Allies from the beginning and, 
while sedulously avoiding any appearance of being any- 
thing but “neutral even in his thoughts,’ he never missed 
an opportunity to extend quietly, even furtively, such 
aid and comfort as he considered suitable. A complete 
tabulation of his contributions cannot be compiled as 
they were made deliberately for secrecy’s sake through 
different agencies from various funds, and in many in- 
stances no records were made. His largest subscription 
during this period was to the Gold Note Syndicate for 
the relief of the British Treasury, but this was in the 
form of a low-rate loan which presumably would be, 
and ultimately was, repaid. Outright gifts were made, 
in varying amounts, to the Belgian Relief Fund, the 
American Ambulance Hospital in France, the maimed 

B35 


Frick the Man 


French soldiers, the families of disabled French artists, 
‘‘French sufferers,’’ the Armored Motor Squadron, the 
Allies’ Bazar, and to other like organizations whenever 
solicited by responsible persons. 

Altogether, the total of gifts made during the war for 
humanitarian purposes by Mr. Frick personally and 
through generous members of his family must have ex- 
ceeded one million of dollars; in truth, he never knew 
how much and he permitted no computation. 

His initial subscription to the First Liberty Loan was 
made on the morning of May 22nd, 1917, when Mr. Frick 
was called to the telephone by Mr. George F. Baker of 
the First National Bank of New York, his closest finan- 
cial friend, and the following conversation ensued: 


Mr. Baxer—Washington is about to ask for subscriptions to 
the First Liberty Loan and of course we want to give it a good 
start. 

Mr. Frick—Of course. 

Mr. Baxer—How many shall I put you down for? 

Mr. Fricx—The same as you take yourself. 

Mr. Baxer—I thought a million. 

Mr. Frick—All right. If youshould want any more, don’t bother 
to ring. Put me down. 


Subsequently, Mr. McEldowney’s records show, Mr. 
Frick bought $4,545,000 of the various issues through 
the Union Trust Company. How many additional he 
purchased through other channels cannot be ascertained. 
But he never failed to respond to a call,—not even when 
later the stock of a company, with whose affairs he was 


fully conversant, was purchasable on a 15 per cent earn- 
316 


AT THE I6TH HOLE, MYOPIA HUNT CLUB 


The Patriot 


ing basis, as contrasted with a yield of 4 per cent from 
government bonds. 

Characteristically, in sending his final subscription of 
$1,500,000 to the Fourth Liberty Loan on September 28th, 
1918, he requested Mr. McEldowney to see that it re- 
ceive no special mention at the big public meeting but 
‘be treated as you treat all other subscriptions,’’ but the 
amount was too large to be ignored and was heralded 
by the Pittsburgh newspapets as ‘‘the largest ever sub- 
scribed by one person to any war activity.”’ 

Mr. Frick’s only son was accepted for air service and 
his only daughter sailed for Red Cross service in France 
in November. 

A joint resolution declaring a state of war against Ger- 
many was introduced in the Senate by Senator Martin of 
Virginia and referred to the Committee on Foreign Re- 
lations on April 2nd. Being found unsatisfactory in form, 
a substitute resolution pronounced by many Senators ‘‘a 
model,’’ was reported back on April 3rd and adopted 
by the votes of all Senators except Messrs. La Follette, 
Gronna, Lane, Stone, Vardaman and Norris. 

‘I was glad to hear through Mr. Schoonmaker,’’ Mr. 
Frick wrote to Senator Knox, ‘‘that you were the author 
of the Declaration of War; it struck me as a very good 
paper; and I rejoice that we have you in the Senate to 
continue doing many fine things that you will get no 
credit for.”’ 

“Of course,’’ he added in reply to a query, ‘‘I thor- 
oughly believe that those of us who stay at home and 
take our ease should willingly pay any taxes that may 

317 


Frick the Man 


be assessed to carry on the war, although I have to confess 
that the present disposition seems to be to impose unfairly 
upon those who are supposed to have large incomes.’’ 

In common with a vast number of Americans of like 
energizing disposition, Mr. Frick chafed at the laggard- 
liness of the government during the Summer, but he was 
so thrilled by the splendor of President Wilson’s address 
to Congress at its reopening in December that he could 
not refrain from voicing his approbation in these en- 


thusiastic terms: 


New York, 
December 7th, 1917. 
Dear Mr. President: 

May I be permitted to congratulate you and the country on your 
admirable address to Congress—only one of many. You have stated 
the situation just as any true American or citizen of any country 
should view it, and every one should be willing to make any neces- 
sary sacrifice to bring about what you have stated should be done. 

It is a great satisfaction to feel that we have in you a leader in 
whom we should be proud: and,while I differ from you in politics, 
I subscribe without reservation to all you are contending for. 

It is my fervent wish that you may be spared to see the trouble 
ended satisfactorily, as I firmly feel you are devoted to this great 
work and will carry it forward fairly and honestly. 

Cordially yours, 
Henry C. Frick. 
Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 


To which the President responded expressing his 
gratification and his feeling that the sentiment of the 
country was more and more uniting for a great dem- 
onstration of the nation’s power as well as its high 
purpose. 

From that day forward Mr. Frick held himself at the 

318 


The Patriot 


call of the Administration and engaged, both in New 
York and at Pride’s, in frequent consultations with its 
representatives. One notable instance afforded an inter- 
esting test of relative loyalties. 

Responding one morning to a summons to the White 
House, Mr. Bernard M. Baruch, the New York financier 
who subsequently became a member of the Commission 
in charge of all purchases for the Allies, Chairman of 
the War Industries Board and economic adviser of the 
American Peace Commission, found the President greatly 
disturbed by complaints that the prices of steel—par- 
ticularly ship plates—as offered by the manufacturers 
were in excess of fair prices. 

Mr. Baruch suggested that a meeting with the heads 
of the various steel companies be arranged and the Presi- 
dent, acquiescing, authorized him to take the necessary 
steps and to act by official authority as his personal rep- 
resentative. 

The conference with the heads of the various companies 
was held in the office of the United States Steel Corpo- 
ration and proved most unsatisfactory to Mr. Baruch. 
Judge Gary did the talking. Yes, it was true, as alleged, 
that the manufacturers desired to charge the United States 
four and one-fourth cents per pound for steel plates; and 
Judge Gary considered this a fair price, especially in view 
of the President's insistence that no higher price be charged 
the Allies,—a matter seriously affecting the profits of 
the manufacturers. Mr. Baruch urged that Big Business 
Was missing an opportunity in failing to show that in 
time of war its representatives placed the welfare of their 


379 


Frick the Man 


government ahead of their own and insisted that Judge 
Gary call up the White House and get the President's 
views. Judge Gary refused to do this and declared the 
conference ended. 

The discomfiture of Mr. Baruch is easily imagined. His 
mission was an abject failure and he must report accord- 
ingly; his pride was shaken; his vanity, hurt; and the 
fault was his, and his alone. He had not insisted upon 
presenting his entire case; he had not depicted the grue- 
someness of the situation as it appeared to the Chief Mag- 
istrate, keenly sensitive to his personal responsibility for 
the keeping of his official engagements, whether written 
or understood, and to the safeguarding of his country’s 
honor to the smallest detail. His mission must be ful- 
filled. He could not, he would not, return to Washing- 
ton humiliated. 

Diligent inquiry elicited the information that Judge 
Gary, then out of reach, was to dine that evening at his 
club where, at an hour which he deemed suitable for 
calling, Mr. Baruch was informed that Mr. Gary was in 
conference and could not see him. Very well, he replied, 
he would wait; the matter was important. At the expi- 
ration of half an hour, he sent up a card upon which he 
had written: 


My message is from the President and I must return tonight. 


There was no answer. An hour passed. Finally Judge 
Gary appeared and, saying simply that he thought the 
Government would accept his judgment that the price 
fixed was fair, he left the club. 

320 


The Patriot 


On the following morning Mr. Baruch, perturbed and 
indignant, called upon Mr. Frick at his house and told his 
story from start to finish. Mr. Frick listened attentively. 

“Of course,’’ he remarked when his visitor had fin- 
ished, “‘you are aware that I am a director of the Steel 
Corporation.” 

““Certainly,’’ Mr. Baruch replied, ‘‘but I am not here 
to see you in that capacity. This country is at war and I 
have come here by the President’s direction to obtain 
from you as a patriotic citizen certain information for 
his guidance in the performance of his duties.”’ 

“What precisely does the President wish to know?’’ 

“'T have already told you that the manufacturers are 
charging the Allies four and one-quarter cents per pound 
for ship plates.”’ 

Mr. Frick nodded assent. 

‘The President would like to learn from you, if you 
can tell, what the production cost of ship plates is.’’ 

Mr. Frick medidated for a moment and then said: 

“Mr. Baruch, I have nothing to do with selling opera- 
tions of the Corporation. I know nothing of the arrange- 
ments between the manufacturers and the various govern- 
ments to which you refer. Ido not interfere with business 
which does not fall within my province. But if the Presi- 
dent, for purposes of his own, in the proper and honor- 
able conduct of the war, has authorized you to ask me 
as a citizen to state the production cost of ship plates I 
can answer his question. It is two and one-half cents a 
pound.”’ | 

“Including a profit?”’ 


321 


Frick the Man 


“Only sufficient to safeguard the manufacturer against 
loss,—which is only fair and proper. Mind you, that is 
the cost to the United States Steel Corporation. I have 
no information respecting costs to other companies.”’ 

Mr. Baruch was profuse in his thanks and assured him 
that the information which he had given the President 
would be held in strictest confidence. 

‘“Naturally,’’ Mr. Frick replied simply, ‘I should pre- 
fer that it be kept that way. I should be criticized no 
doubt, and perhaps rightly. But if [had wished to dodge, 
I should not have answered at all. I am always respon- 
sible for what I say and you may tell the President that, 
if the accuracy of my figures should be questioned in 
any such way as might embarrass him, he need not hesi- 
tate to ask me to prove them openly.”’ 

The President's order to the Commission to stand firm, 
was so convincing of his knowledge of the facts that Mr. 
Frick’s testimony was not required and, after much hag- 
gling over the evidence that costs to the smaller concerns, 
whose products were essential, were materially higher, 
a compromise, generally considered fair, was effected 
upon the basis of three and forty-one-hundredths cents 
per pound. Thereafter, by the President's explicit direc- 
tion, Mr. Baruch kept in constant touch with Mr. Frick 
respecting all perplexing problems of the War Industry 
Board, ‘‘and,’’ in Mr. Baruch’s own words “‘he never 
failed to keep an appointment whenever and wherever 
suggested.” 

Mr. Frick’s attitude toward personal profiteering dur- 
ing the war was disclosed incidentally. A luncheon guest 

422 


The Patriot 


just returned from Washington reported remarks heard 
at the capital somewhat critical of the methods of a cer- 
tain Syndicate engaged in financing a huge shipbuilding 
project with the approval and prospective support of the 
Government from which, it was anticipated, construc- 
tion contracts would be obtained on a cost-plus basis. 
Questions were being asked, not with respect to the per- 
centages to be allowed for profits, which were published 
and appeared moderate, but as to the need of forming 
subsidiary companies for manufacturing and other pur- 
poses whose costs might easily be enhanced in various 
ways without being so readily ascertained. 

Although, inthe confusion attendant upon the making 
of many other like arrangements upon a large scale, this 
particular operation had escaped public attention, vague 
suspicions of the devious workings of High Finance were 
becoming rife, and observant persons were manifesting 
concern lest unpleasant disclosures impair the navy’s 
fighting capacity at a critical time. 

_ Mr. Frick listened attentively but said nothing. Fol- 

lowing the luncheon, however, he excused himself for a 
moment to send a telephone message before rejoining his 
guest in the drawing room. Presently he was summoned 
to his office and, upon returning, remarked quietly: 

“T had an interest in that Syndicate. I took it up to 
help the Government by relieving it of a part of its heavy 
financing and with the understanding that subscribers 
would receive no more than a moderate rate of interest 
on their payments to be fixed openly by the Government. 
The thought of making a profit never crossed my mind. 

323 


Frick the Man 


I find, however, upon inquiry, that my money is no longer 
needed by the Syndicate, as the subscriptions are selling 
at a premium, which seems to indicate some ground for 
the rumor you heard. I gave orders to sell my interest 
when I went to the telephone and have just now been 
notified that it has been sold. I don’t know whether there 
is a profit in the transaction or not. I hope not, but my 
report will show in the morning, and if there is, it will 
go into the United War Work treasury before night. 

“Tt is dificult for a man of means to know what to do 
in all instances,’’ he added. ‘‘Some of my shareholdings 
will increase in value during the war, no doubt to my 
ultimate advantage; others may decrease for one reason 
or another; nobody can tell; I cannot keep shifting my 
investments in any case and it would do no good if I 
could; so the best I can do is to stand pat.”’ 

In point of fact, the appraisal of Mr. Frick’s estate fol- 
lowing his death showed that his fortune shrank many 
millions between the beginning and the ending of the 
wart of the United States against the Central Powers of 
Europe. 

It is an interesting fact, not generally known, that the 
only two multi-millionaires who supported quietly, but 
effectively, the successful organized effort to prevent the 
inclusion of the United States in the League of Nations 
were Messrs. Henry Clay Frick and Andrew W. Mellon. 
This endeavor, it may be recalled, was initiated and di- 
rected bya small group comprising a dozen resolute United 
States Senators and a few publicists. The contest quickly 
resolved into a bitter struggle against heavy odds. Ani- 

324 


The Patriot 


mated by a natural revulsion against warfare, following 
the world’s greatest devastation, a powerful sentiment 
sprang up throughout the entire country in favor of any 
movement designed to perpetuate peace. Republicans and 
Democrats alike fell into line behind President Wilson 
and Former President Taft and of all classes none was so 
zealous, so determined and so active as the moneyed ele- » 
ment of New York. Bankers noticeably and capitalists, 
though less aggressively, seemed to be literally unani- 
mous in their advocacy of the most far-reaching and most 
appealing experiment ever adventured by the Republic. 
To oppose its undertaking was to invite personal igno- 
miny. 

Such was the atmosphere in which Henry Clay Frick 
lived when, one evening in May, 1919, the group op- 
posed to joining the League, assembled at their accus- 
tomed meeting place in Senator Brandegee’s residence 
in Washington, were apprized that their whole plan of 
campaign was seriously endangered. Their strategy had 
consisted of disseminating propaganda chiefly through- 
out the middle West at mass meetings and by distri- 
bution of quantities of ‘“‘campaign literature’ for the 
purpose of starting “back fires” upon wavering Senators. 
Thus far, with the powerful aid of a few public journals 
headed in the West by the Cutcaco Trispune and the 
Kansas Crry Srar, in the East by the New Yorx Sun, 
Boston EvENING TRANscRIPT and WASHINGTON Post, and 
nationally by the aggregation of public journals owned 
by William Randolph Hearst and, incidentally, by a 
small but energetic weekly paper printed in New York, 


375 


Frick the Man 


the campaign had progressed favorably, but the time 
had come when essential travelling and mailing expend- 
itures required considerable sums, and the modest funds 
which the committee had been able to supply were com- 
pletely exhausted. The problem of ways and means, to 
oppose successfully skilful antagonists suffering from 
no such handicap was poignant. The finding of a deeper 
reservoir upon which to draw for financial aid had be- 
come a paramount necessity. 

Various plans were proposed only to be rejected as im- 
practicable and the outlook was lamentably gloomy 
when late in the evening the resourceful Senator Knox - 
suggested as a last resort an appeal to Mr. Frick and Mr. 
Mellon, who he said were accustomed to act together 
in such matters and both of whom, he thought—with 
no reason for his surmise—might be impressed with the 
merits of the cause, if it could be placed before them 
effectively. He felt confident, in any case, that if either 
could be won over, the other would join. The suggestion 
had crossed his mind in consequence of a chance remark 
by the New York representative present that he would 
be obliged to leave on the following morning to attend 
a complimentary dinner which Mr. Frick was to give to 
General Wood on the following evening. This might 
afford him an opportunity, Senator Knox suggested, to 
broach the subject and, if the response should by chance 
be favorable, he himself would follow it up immediately 
with Mr. Mellon. 

The proposal was accepted and the dinner, attended 
by forty of New York's most distinguished men, was so 

326 


The Patriot 


successful that afterwards the host pronounced it per- 
haps the most satisfactory he had ever given. Fortunately 
for his design, the delegated conspirator was requested 
by his host to remain after the party had dissolved and, 
yet more happily for his purpose, he was informed pres- 
ently that enlightenment respecting the contest over 
joining the League of Nations was desired. 

‘“Those whom I come into contact with,’’ said Mr. 
Frick, ‘‘seem to feel that this country ought to join and 
I am being constantly urged to support the movement. 
But the fact is that I have been so busy of late that I 
haven't followed the discussion as closely probably as I 
ought. I went to the opera house and listened to the 
President and Mr. Taft and I must confess that, while 
Mr. Taft's speech seemed to me very good, Mr. Wilson’s 
was not convincing. I should like to hear the other side 
if there is one, and I judge from the little I have read 
about it that there is.”’ 

Marvelling at this auspicious fortuity, the eager propa- 
gandist set forth the stock arguments of the group of 
Irreconcilables with whom he was aligned as succinctly 
as he was capable of doing, although at considerable 
length. Mr. Frick followed the statement closely, ask- 
ing many questions, and finally said: 

‘‘As I understand it, then, the proposition is to pledge 
the United States, now the richest and most powerful 
nation in the world, to pool its issues with other coun- 
tries, which are largely its debtors, and to agree in ad- 
vance to abide by the policies and practices adopted by a 
majority or two-thirds of its associates; that is, to sur- 

327 


Frick the Man 


render its present right of independence of action upon any 
specific question whenever such a question may arise.”’ 

‘That is substantially it.”’ 

‘Well, Iam opposed to that. Of course Iam. I don't 
see how any experienced business man could fail to be. 
Why, it seems to mea crazy thing to do.”’ 

“That is what Senator Knox and the rest of us think. 
Now the question is, Will you help us to beat it?”’ 

‘“What do you want me to do?’ 

The visitor then recounted the happening of the pre- 
vious evening in Washington as the simplest way of pre- 
senting the full situation. 

‘‘So,’’ remarked Mr. Frick, smiling, ‘‘you were going 
to fetch up the matter anyway? 

‘If I could get a chance, yes.”’ 

‘That's rather odd; but’ he added quizzically, “I un- 
derstood you to say that Knox was going to see Mr. 
Mellon; why didn’t he?”’ 

“Well, as it happens, Mr. Mellon was here tonight; 
also, for some reason or other, the Senator seemed to 
think it might be well for me to pull your leg first.’’ 

‘Come now, do you consider that a compliment or a 
reflection?’ 

“Oh, a compliment surely. In fact, my only objection 
to his programme was that Mr. Mellon might feel ag- 
grieved.”’ 

This was too much for one possessed of humor in Mr. 
Frick’s gay mood. 

“I don’t think you needed to worry about that,’’ he 
chuckled; then sobering quickly, he added: 

328 


IN LATER YEARS 


(Mr. Frick at ‘Eagle Rock,’’ his country place at 
Pride’s Crossing, Massachusetts) 


“ 


ie 


The Patriot 


“Well, I’ll go along. How much do you want?”’ 

A sum was mentioned. 

“That won't go far.”’ 

“Only for a starter of course; to Senator Pepper, to- 
morrow; time is important.”’ 

“Tt will be sent in the morning.”’ 

The highly gratified guest had said good-night and 
was on the threshold when a quick step was heard down 
the long corridor and Mr. Frick, his eyes gleaming with 
the joyous light of battle, appeared pointing a finger 
admonitorily and with seriousness, partly mock and 
partly real, he said: 

‘Be sure you put up a good fight. Now that we are in, 
we must win, you know. Keep me posted. Good luck 
and good-night.”’ 

Three days later the New York member of the cabal 
received the following note from the Senate Chamber: 

Thanks for your note. I had already received a letter from Mr. 
Frick announcing what he had done and I wrote to Pittsburgh and 
obtained the same amount from Mr. Mellon. I told Medill [Sen- 
ator McCormick] today and he says he can now go to Chicago and 


raise about twenty [thousand]. 
Very sincerely yours, 


P. C. Knox. 

The desired reservoir had been found and it was both 
deep and full. All anxiety respecting sinews of war was 
dispelled. Rejoicing pervaded the camp of the Irrecon- 
cilables, efforts were redoubled all along the line and the 
redoubtable little band pushed on to the victory which, 
whether desirable or not, presently was won in the Sen- 
ate and ultimately was ratified by the people. 

59 


Frick the Man 


Mr. Frick’s interest became intense and never flagged 
for a moment during the seven months left to him of 
earthly existence. After listening, three days before he 
died, toan encouraging report of progress in what proved 
to be his last fight, he smiled contentedly and pronounced 
it “‘Goop.”’ 


33° 


XXIII 


An Art Collector 


HAT Mr. Fricx’s love of art was innate there 

can be no question. While yet in his teens, as 

already noted, the walls of his living room 

were covered with such “‘prints and sketches’’ 
as wete obtainable in a remote country village for the 
meager remnants of small earnings at his disposal. 
Whether he actually essayed the use of pencil and brush, 
as vaguely recalled by one or two of his contemporaries, 
is perhaps a question, although a surmise to that effect 
is not improbable. But testimony to his inherent interest 
is abundant and evidences of a steadily increasing bent 
and a signal refinement of taste are manifest at least from 
the time of furnishing his home in Pittsburgh. 

Hewas attracted first to the French School, and begin- 
ning while abroad in 1895 he bought a number of paint- 
ings of varying merits, many of which, as his taste became 
more catholic, he subsequently disposed of. Although he 
undertook his new avocation with characteristic caution 
and only after studies as thorough and as painstaking as he 
ever applied to a business venture, he quickly developed 
a tare power of discrimination which he applied unhesi- 
tatingly whenever an opportunity arose to substitute an 
example of an artist's genius superior to one which he 
had acquired, thus pursuing his unwavering policy of 

331 


Frick the Man 


always getting the best obtainable. Even while proceed- 
ing by this winnowing process, at the end of three years 
he had gathered into his mansion in Pittsburgh no less 
than seventy-one pictures fairly representative of Rem- 
brandt, Nattier, Hoppner, Reynolds, Watts, Dagnan Bou- 
veret, Corot, Daubigny, Troyon, Millet, Jacque, Rous- 
seau, Alma Tadema, Jules Breton, Fritz Thaulow, Mauve, 
Greuze, Van Marcke, Monet, Cazin, Bouguereau, Gé- 
rome, his particular friend Chartran and others, consti- 
tuting altogether an admirable nucleus for the superb 
collection ultimately achieved. 

This much he did solely for the gratification of himself, 
his family and his friends. It was not until after he had 
residedin NewYork that he was inspired by an inspection 
of the famous Wallace collection in London to make 
his own as complete and as nearly perfect as possible for 
ultimate exhibition, suitably housed and amply endowed 
for acquirement of meritorious additions through all 
years to come, to the people of his own country. 

To compare with other collections, that left by Mr. 
Frick in fulfilment of his noble aspiration might seem 
invidious and could serve no useful purpose, but there 
can hardly be dissent from the expert judgment of Mr. 
Cortissoz that ‘‘this excels any single gift ever made to 
the public in the past.’’ It comprises more than a hundred 
paintings, and every one is a masterpiece representing 
the best work of fifty or more of the world’s greatest 
artists. 

In addition to paintings, Mr. Frick acquired exquisite 
examples in sculpture, Renaissance bronzes, Limoges 

332 


An Ast Colleétor 


enamels, and Chinese porcelains. The bust of a Neapol- 
itan Princess by Laurana and the Portrait of Madame 
Cayla by Houdon, are masterpieces in marble, and among 
the bronzes, are the works of Giovanni da Bologna, Ben- 
venuto Cellini, Verrocchio and Michelangelo. 

Both Limousin and Pénicaud, those rare masters in the 
art of ‘‘Limoges,’’ are represented, and thus the enamels 
rival in quality the finest in the museums of Europe. 

The collection of so-called black hawthorn vases of the 
K’ang and Hsi period is one of the most choice in exist- 
ence, and the beauty of these objets d’art is greatly en- 
hanced by the dignity and harmony of the setting afforded 
by the paintings themselves. 

‘““A Noble Landmark in our Art History,’’ was the 
title given by Mr. Cortissoz to his appreciative and dis- 
criminating tribute, published simultaneously with Mr. 
Frick’s Will. 

“Comment upon Mr. Frick’s gift of his collection to 
the public,’’ he wrote, ‘‘is naturally enough concentrated 

just now upon the mere magnitude of his bequest. He 
leaves to the city, or to the state as the exact terms of 
his will may determine, a prodigious body of artistic 
treasures. It is said that it cost him from $30,000,000 to 
$40,000,000 and the estimate seems reasonable. Yet it is 
in the particular disposition of his works of art that he 
has done most to place his countrymen in his debt. For 
a number of years, when our great private collections 
have not gone to the auction room, they have gravitated 
to public museums. Nothing could be more commend- 
able—save the newer policy which has given a Johnson 

333 


Frick the Man 


Museum to Philadelphia, a Freer Museum to Washing- 
ton, and now a Frick Museum to New York. 

‘The independent gathering of masterpieces, isolated 
in a building of their own, is a boon for which we are 
always bound to be grateful, and it takes ona particularly 
rare atmosphere when it reduces to a minimum the in- 
stitutional character inseparable from the public mu- 
seums. The Frick collection will inevitably be compared 
with the Wallace Collection in London. But when the 
reader is making comparisons of this sort let him think 
of another, smaller shrine of art; instead of Hertford 
House, let him think of the Poldi-pezzoli, at Milan. 
There is the ideal precedent which Mr. Frick has fol- 
lowed. 

“Tn giving his house along with his pictures and other 
beautiful possessions he has done all that a collector 
could do to send Velasquez or a Rembrandt or a Gains- 
borough down to posterity, not as a ‘museum specimen’ 
but as a human thing, a work made truly for the delight 
of mankind. We would be lost without museums, but 
we are trebly enriched when the museum idea is camou- 
flaged, so to say, by the atmosphere of an individual’s 
home. It is an interesting coincidence that, at the time 
when the historic interiors of Europe and Great Britain 
are being broken up as never before, the announcement 
of the Frick bequest should be made. The old order 
changeth, giving place to the new. Is the ancient tra- 
dition to be revived in the United States, ancestral col- 
lections being scattered abroad only to enter upon a more 
permanent form of existence on this side of the Atlantic? 

334 


An Art Colleétor 


‘It requires no great stretching of the imagination to 
recognize in Mr. Frick’s gift the establishment of some- 
thing like a landmark in our art history.”’ 

Mr. Frick did not merely admire and enjoy his beauti- 
ful pictures; he loved them with a passion as tender as 
he felt for little children. They rested him, refreshed his 
mind, soothed his spirit. Often late at night, at the end 
of a trying day, when perfect stillness rei gned, he would 
slip noiselessly, almost furtively, into the darkened gal- 
lery, turn on the lights and sit for an hour or more, first 
on one divan then on another, absorbing solace and hap- 
piness through the mirrors of his heart before seeking 
the mental and physical relaxation of dreamless sleep. 
And nothing gave him so much pleasure as quietly wit- 
nessing, himself unseen, the delights of enraptured visi- 
tors, and listening to their comments. 

In his later years, he personally superintended and di- 
rected the unwrapping and hanging of every fresh acqui- 
sition and made careful notation, in a diary deplorably 
casual in other respects, of dates of arrival and the like, 
but with no superfluous word, as for example: 


191g 
March 12.—Purchased Stuart ‘‘Geo. Washington.”’ 


yaeeay.——Re the Vermeer. 
May 24.—Purchased paintings from Bacon Estate. 
Aug. 13.—Vermeer arrived. Taken to Pride’s. 
Sept. 7.—Brought the Vermeer from Pride’s. 
The first Old Master purchased was Rembrandt’s 
‘Portrait of a Painter.’’ 
The Vermeer referred to, ‘‘Lady with a Letter,’’ was 
the last painting bought by Mr. Frick, and this, with 


335 


Frick the Man 


Rembrandt’s ‘Self Portrait,’’ Velasquez’s “‘Philip the 
Fourth,’’ Holbein’s *‘Sir Thomas More,’’ and Bellini’s 
‘St. Francis,’’ comprised his favorites. But he never 
wavered in allegiance to his first choice among artists. 
Asked late in life what man’s gift he would have pre- 
ferred to inherit if he had possessed the privilege of se- 
lection, he replied unhesitatingly: 

‘““Rembrandt’s.”’ 

His first announcement of his purpose, after viewing the 
Wallace collection was made confidentially to a friend. 

‘The American people,’’ hesaid, ‘‘arefond—and prop- 
erly so—of going to Europe, chiefly to see the famous 
paintings and other works of art there. I am going to 
try to bring some of them here where all Americans may 
have the opportunity of seeing them without crossing 
the ocean.”’ 

And toward the last, while showing the last Vermeer 
purchased to another friend, he looked down the long 
gallery and remarked quietly: 

‘‘T can only hope that the public will get one-half the 
pleasure that has been afforded me in enjoyment of these 
masterpieces in proper surroundings. I want this col- 
lection to be my monument.”’ 


336 


An Art Colleétor 


PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND ETCHINGS SELECTED AND PURCHASED BY 
MR. FRICK PERSONALLY BETWEEN 1881 AND I9I9 


DATE OF 
PURCHASE ARTIST TITLE 

1881 Luts Jiminez In the Louvre 

1887 Trro Less1 The Reader 
MEYER VON Bremen The Darlings 

1895 Martin Rico Fishermen’s Houses, Venice 
J. B. Rosie Flower Piece 
BouGuEREAU Espiéglerie 
BRETON Last Gleanings 
Cazin Sunday Evening in a Miners’ Village 
CazIn The Pool—Gray Night 
C. E. Jacque Minding the Flock 
A. B. WALE Sheep 
J. G. Jacquet Manon 
HarNETT Still Life 
J. R. WoopwEti Landscape 
Rosa BoNHEUR Horse Fair 
J. W. Beatry Harvest Scene 
Monet Argenteuil 
THAULOW Village Night Scene 

1896 PICcKNELL Among the Polls 
Van Os Fruit 
Mauve A Quiet Hour 
CHARTRAN Portrait of H.C. Frick 
RosENBOOM Five Water Colors 
HARPIGNIES Lake at Briare 
HARPIGNIES Sunset Pool 
DavuBIGNY Les Laveuses 
ZIEM French Gardens in Venice 
Diaz A Pond of Vipers 
RosENBOOM Yellow Roses 
Mauve Early Morning Ploughing 
RoussEAu Edge of Woods 

1897 Draz Love's Caresses 
L’ HERMITE The Haymakers 
ALMA TADEMA Watching 
MILLET The Farmer’s Wife A drawing 


337 


Frick the Man 


DATE OF 


PURCHASE ARTIST TITLE 
1897 J. Dupré *La Riviere 
LINNELL Evening: Hampstead Heath 
1898 Romney *Mary Finch Hatton 
Cazin The Dipper 
RAFFAELLI La Toilette 
Corot *Ville d’Avray 
TROYON Landscape 
Swan Tigers Drinking 
MiILiet The Knitting Lesson A drawing 
CuvILLON Le Lever 
Wo. A. CorFin A Rainy Day 
THAULOW Hoar Frost 
Dacnan-Bovuveret Disciples at Emmaus 
MiLeT Shepherd Minding Sheep A drawing 
1899 CHELMINSKI Moonlight Drive 
THAULOW Winter in Norway 
Mitiet TheSower A drawing 
TROYON Road near the Woods 
CHARTRAN Portrait of P. C. Knox 
HoppNER *Miss Byng 
THAULOW The Smoky City 
FRIANT Chagrin d’Enfant 
LEroy Cats the Burglars 
MILLET Puy-de-Déme A drawing 
MILiet Cow Herder % 
REMBRANDT *A Young Painter 
NATTIER *The Honorable Elizabeth Hamilton 
DaGcnan-Bouveret Head of Christ 
Corot *L’Etang 
MortanpD Horse in Stable 
TROYON Paturage en Normandie 
DavuBIGNY Le Village de Glaton 
1900 VOLLON Still Life 
1901 Monet Bords de la Seine 
TURNER *Antwerp: Van Goyen Looking for a 
Subject 
DaGcnan-Bovuveret Consoling the Afflicted 
~ *In the Frick Collection 


338 


DATE OF 
PURCHASE 


1901 


1902 


1903 


1904 


15 


1906 


An Art Collector 


ARTIST TITLE 
Jacos RutsDAEL A Waterfall 
Jacos Maris Amsterdam 
IsRAELS Mother and Children 
VERMEER *The Music Lesson 
WouvERMAN *Cavalry Camp 
Diaz La Plaine 
Draz Les Baigneuses 
IsRAELS Near the Cradle 
Jacos Maris Mussel Gatherers 
Mauve Hauling Logs 
HosBEMA *A Woody Country 
THomas Lawrence Marquise de Blaisel 
Rousszau *Village de Becquigny 
Curp *Herdsman and Cows 
REYNOLDS Lady Beaumont 
REYNOLDS Sir George Beaumont 
Corot *Le Matin: Lac de Garde 
RoMNEY *The Honorable Miss Harford 
GAINSBOROUGH *Mrs. Hatchett 
GeratD TersurG *Portrait of Lady in Black 
CoNSsTABLE Agitated Sea 
DavuBIGNY *Dieppe 
MurILLo Portrait of the Artist 
Tuomas Lawrence *Lady Peel 
RoMNEY *Lady Hamilton 
TURNER *Boats Entering Calais Harbor 
RAEBURN *Mrs. Cruikshank 
Ext Greco *Portrait of a Cardinal 
Van Dyck *Portrait of Canevari 
Cuyp *Sunrise on the Maas or Dort 
Metsu *Lady in Blue Negligé 
TITIAN *Pietro Aretino 
TENIERS Family Party 
Sotomon RuyspaEt *Landscape 
VLIEGER Sea Shore 
Franz Hats *Portrait of an Artist 
LE QuESNE Settlement of St. Louis 


*In the Frick Collection 


339 


DATE OF 
PURCHASE 


1906 VAN DE CaPELLE 


1907 


1908 


1909 


1910 


I91I 


Frick the Man 


ARTIST 


Mitiet 
Corot 
REYNOLDS 
REYNOLDs 
REMBRANDT 
Van Dycx 
VAN OsTADE 


TITLE 
*View of Dort 
*La Femme a la Lampe 
*le Lac 
*Mrs. Harcourt 
*Lady Skipworth 
*Self Portrait 
*Marchesa Giovanna Cattaneo 
*Halt at the Inn 


ScHoot oF AVIGNON *Pieta 


C. HassaM 
RoMNEY 
MILLET 
CoNSTABLE 
VELASQUEZ 
GAINSBOROUGH 
TURNER 

Et Greco 
ZIEM 

Van Dycx 
Van Dycx 
TARBELL 

Curr 
BROUWER 
REYNOLDS 
REMBRANDT 
Franz Hats 
Jacos RuisDAEL 
Franz Hats 
RuBENS 
REMBRANDT 
REMBRANDT 
Goya 
VELASQUEZ 
VERMEER 
HosBEMA 
RaEBURN 
GAINSBOROUGH 


*In the Frick Collection 


340 


The June Idyl 
*Lady Warwick and Children 
La Sortie A drawing 
*Salisbury Cathedral 
Marianna of Austria 
The Honorable Mrs. Watson 
*Mortlake Terrace 
*Purification of Temple 
La Galére 
*Mrs. Snyders 
*Franz Snyders 
Scene in the Berkshire Hills 
*River Scene 
Landscape 
*Lady Elizabeth Taylor 
*Polish Rider 
*Portrait of a Woman 
*The Quay at Amsterdam 
*A Burgomaster 
Italian Prince in Armor 
Man in Broad-brimmed Hat and Ruff 
Woman in White Cap and Ruff 
Tirana 
*Philip IV 
*Soldier and Laughing Girl 
*Landscape 
*James Cruikshank 
*The Honorable Frances Duncombe 


DATE OF 
PURCHASE 


I9II 
1912 


1913 


1914 


19%) 


1916 


An Art Colleétor 


ARTIST 
ROMNEY 
HoLsBEIN 
VERONESE 
VERONESE 
Van Dycx 


Et Greco 
GuARDI 
GuARDI 
GAINSBOROUGH 
GAINSBOROUGH 
GAINSBOROUGH 
REMBRANDT 
REMBRANDT 
REMBRANDT 
Van Dycx 
Jacos Maris 
HoGarTH 
Goya 

Goya 
GAINSBOROUGH 
WHISTLER 
WHISTLER 
WHISTLER 
TURNER 
TURNER 


GERHARDT DavIpD 
GIOVANNI BELLINI 


Ho.sBEIN 
HoppNER 
RUBENS 
FRAGONARD 
GAINSBOROUGH 
VAN DER PLuYM 
WHISTLER 
WHISTLER 
TITIAN 


*In the Frick Collection 


TITLE 
*Lady Milnes 
*Sir Thomas More 
*Wisdom and Strength 
*Virtue and Vice 
*James Stanley, Earl of Derby, his 
Wife and Child 

*Knight of Malta 

Canal Scene 

Canal Scene 
*Study of a Lady Seated A drawing 
*Study of a Lady Seated * 
*Landscape e 
*Landscape with Cottage 
*Houses around Courtyard 
*Isaac Blessing Jacob 
*Paola Adorno 
*The Bridge 
*The Honorable Mary Edwards 
*Sefiora Dona Maria Martinez da Puga 
*Count Teba 
*Lady Innes 
*Rosa Corder 
*Comte de Montesquieu 
*The Ocean (Nocturne) 
*Cologne: Arrival of the Packet Boat 
*Dieppe: Moving Day 
*Descent from the Cross 
*St. Francis in the Desert 
*Sir Thomas Cromwell 
*The Misses Bligh 
*A mbrose Spinola 
*Romance of Love and Youth 
*The Mall in St. James Park 
*Old Woman with a Bible | 
*Lady Meux 
*Mrs. Leyland 
*Man with a Red Cap 


341 


DATE OF 
PURCHASE 


1916 
ue 


1918 


Frick the Man 


ARTIST 
Goya 
Franz Hats 
Van Dycx 
GAINSBOROUGH 
PETER DE Hoocu 
Van Dycx 
BoucHER 
BoucHER 
BoucHER 
WHISTLER 
WHISTLER 
WHISTLER 
DGrRER 
REMBRANDT 
REMBRANDT 
Van Dyck 
Van Dycx 
DUrer 
Direr 
REMBRANDT 
REMBRANDT 
REMBRANDT 
REMBRANDT 
REMBRANDT 
MERYON 
MERYON 
MERYON 
TIEPOLO 
RENOIR 
BELLOWS 
R. Kent 
GILBERT STUART 
LEMORDANT 
Goya 
RAEBURN 
HoGarTH 
HoppNER 


*In the Frick Collection 


342 


TITLE 

*The Forge 
*Admiral de Ruyter 
*Countess of Clanbrassil 
*Mrs. Wm. Peter Baker 
*Interior with Figures 
*Sir John Suckling 
*La Musique 
*Le Dessin 
*Jeune Fille Tenant Fleurs 
*The Ferry, Venice 
*Nocturne, Venice 
*La Cimetiere, Venice 
*Adam and Eve ® 
*The Three Trees - 
*The Goldweigher’s Field ‘ss 
*Pierre Breughel, Younger 
*Franz Snyders 
*Knight, Death andthe Devil ”’ 
*Coat of Arms with the Scull 
*Cottage with White Palings 
*Landscape 
*Landscape 
*Clement de Jonghe 
*St. Francis Beneath a Tree 
*Le Pont au Change 
*L’Arche du Pont NotreDame ”’ 
*Fourteen Etchings 
*Perseus and Andromeda 
*Mother and Children 

Docks in Winter 

Seiners 
*George Washington 

Sketch 
*Portrait of a Man 

Portrait of a Man 

Portrait of a Man 

Princess Sophia 


An'etching 


An Art Colleéor 


DATE OF 
PURCHASE ARTIST TITLE 
1918 Jacos RuIsDAEL Waterfall 
RoMNEY Mrs. Thomas Raikes and Child 
Dirk Hats Dutch Interior 
REYNOLDs Portrait of Lady Cecil Rice 
GAINSBOROUGH R. B. Sheridan 
GuaRDI Venetian Scene 
PATER *L’Orchestre du Village 
PATER _ *Marche Comique 
BoucHER Four Engravings after Boucher 
1919 VERMEER *Reading a Letter 


*TIn the Frick Collection 


343 


XXIV 
Benefactions and Bequests 


HAT Princeton University stood first among edu- 
cational institutions in the estimation of Mr. 
Frick was made clear to the public when an- 
nouncement was made that he had bequeathed 
to it thirty out of a total of one hundred shares in the 
residue of his estate, but the fact is not generally known 
that this splendid donation, though the greatest, was but 
the last of many gifts that had preceded it. His first con- 
tributions of $20,500, subsequently increased to $36,314, 
for the purchase of land for the Colonial Club and $20,000 
for the gymnasium were made during the first year of 
President Woodrow Wilson’s administration in 1903. 
Others followed chronologically as follows: 
1906—To endow a bed in the infirmary, $3,000; 1914—for erec- 
tion of Freshman and Sophomore dining halls, $10,000; 1915 —to 
deficit and library book fund, $10,000; land for campus $23,500; 
1916—sketches for chemical laboratory, $2,200; organ, $46,000; 
endowment for upkeep of organ, $100,000; land for campus, $92,- 
ooo; 1918—additional compensation for organist, $5,000; Prince- 


ton Bureau, Paris, for service to men overseas, $1000; 1919—alter- 
ations to chemical laboratory, $9,500; total, $358,514. 


The University also profited handsomely from Mr. 
Frick’s possession of ready money 1n 1916. It held in its 
treasury at that time one thousand shares of the Chase 
National Bank, whose capital was about to be doubled, 

344 


Benefaétions and Bequests 


affording stockholders an opportunity to subscribe for 
their respective allotments at par. The privilege was val- 
uable but the University was unable to exercise it, owing 
to lack of funds and inability to get a bid for its holdings. 
Even the ‘insiders’ had “‘enough of the stock,’’ reported 
Mr. Moses Taylor Pyne, when he sought advice from 
Mr. Frick, who promptly loaned the University $100,- 
000 at 4 per cent for such time as might be required to 
protect its rights, with the result that at the end of six 
months thetreasurer was able to sell three hundred shares 
for enough to pay off the loan, leaving seven hundred 
shares free and clear and realizing for the University a 
net profit of $225,000. 

But Mr. Frick’s interest in educational advancement 
was not confined to universities and colleges. It was even 
keener in common schools. This was but natural. To those 
humble institutions he was indebted chiefly for such in- 
tellectual training as he was able to acquire in his youth, 
and subsequent experience undoubtedly impressed upon 
his mind a sense of their deficiencies. It is quite probable, 
too, that he took pride in his Grandfather Overholt’s 
successful endeavors to raise the system in Pennsylvania 
to a higher plane. What better service could he render 
than to supplement the work of his most revered pro- 
genitor? That such an aspiration crossed his mind when, 
in 1909, he directed his attention to the needs of his native 
community may well be believed. The only question was 
how to render real service in a practical way, and this 
he answered from a close study of conditions which con- 
vinced him that the first requisite of improvement was 


345 


Frick the Man 


teaching of the teachers. To carry out his purpose he 
summoned to Pride’s his old friend, John A. Brashear, 
the humble millwright and idealist who had become 
famous for his invention of astronomical instruments 
which had widened the boundaries of science, simply 
because he ‘‘loved the stars,’’ and confided to him his 
design. 

““Briefly,’’ says Mr. Brashear in his naive Memoirs, 
‘‘he made me custodian of a fund of $250,000 for the 
betterment of our grade schools, with especial reference 
to assisting to improve their methods of teaching. Mr. 
Frick wished that the name of the donor of the fund 
remain unknown, and it was so for seven years. With 
his help and consent I appointed a committee of enthusi- 
astic men to assist in this important work, but I remained 
the spokesman of the unannounced donor. The Educa- 
tional Fund Commission contained two judges, two ex- 
perienced members of local boards of education (now the 
Board of Public Education of Pittsburgh), and two man- 
ufacturing engineers interested in educational work. At 
the first meeting of the Commission, October 2nd, 1909, 
I was elected President. We all entered upon our duties 
with enthusiasm and a deep sense of responsibility which 
had devolved upon us in such an unexpected and unusual 
manner.”’ 

Seven years later Judge Joseph Buffington, an original 
member of the Commission, made public the following 
report: 


The desire of the donor to now make the fund permanent has 
necessitated the disclosure of his identity; and at a recent confer- 


346 


Benefactions and Bequests 


ence with him at which he made the fund of $250,000 permanent, 
he added an annual income of $12,500 for a term of five years, the 
donor has at our urgent request permitted us to lift the veil of 
modest retirement which has hitherto characterized this splendid 
anonymous gift. 

There have been, of course, instances here and there of small 
gifts to the public schools, but this gift is, historically speaking, 
I believe, the first and only instance of an endowment by an indi- 
vidual, on a large scale, of an American public-school system. 

In starting out on this new field the Commission sought the 
views of the best educators over the country, but after they had 
been heard from, the Commission finally, as in most cases of re- 
sponsibility, had to evolve its own plan. In substance that plan 
was to Create, stimulate, and develop the ambition, field, and vi- 
sion of the two thousand teachers who were moulding the eighty 
thousand school children of the city. They determined that in the 
public school the individual teacher was, in the final analysis, the 
power behind the gun; and if that teacher could be led from the 
sphere of humdrum routine into an atmosphere of progressive self- 
improvement, that the child, the schools, and the community 
would be benefited. 

With that specific end in view—the energizing, vitalizing, and 
inspiring the individual teacher—the Commission turned to the 
summer schools of pedagogy which wete being established in differ- 
ent parts of the country. These schools were beginning to draw to 
their sessions the most ambitious and progressive teachers, and the 
Commission determined as an experiment to select about seventy 
Pittsburgh teachers and send them to these schools with the dis- 
tinct idea of coupling vocational and vacational work, and enable 
these teachers to bring back to Pittsburgh the best ideas they could 
from the best teachers from other American cities who attended 
these summer schools. 

It will thus be seen that the basic feature of the Commission was 
teaching the child by teaching the teacher, and in doing that to 
get the best ideas of the best school work of other cities and bring 
that best to the schools of Pittsburgh .. . 

The keynote had been struck, the problem solved. Henceforth 
it was a mere question of going ahead on the lines mapped. By the 
time three years had passed, the teachers grasped the idea of the 


347 


Benefaétions and Bequests 


The Commission has generously encouraged the routine profes- 
sional work being carried on with the teachers throughout the 
school year by making an appropriation to pay for the services of 
outside school experts who may be brought to the city to assist in 
the development of such work. 


“This gift of Henry Clay Frick,’’ Dr. Davidson con- 
cluded, ‘*is unique in the annals of America. I venture to 
say that no bequest has ever been made to an educational 
institution in thiscountry that hasaccomplished so much 
in a given space of time as has been accomplished by the 
magnificent bequest of Henry Clay Frick to the uses of 
the public school teachers of Pittsburgh. Due to this be- 
neficence this city is today among the foremost cities of 
America and of the world in all matters pertaining to 
the professional growth and the professional improve- 
ment of its teachers."’ 

The old observatory of the Western University had 
become useless in 1894 and Mr. Brashear was made Chair- 
man of a committee to raise funds for construction of a 
new one. At the expiration of four years enough money 
had been subscribed to prepare plans and lay a corner 
stone but that was about all. Seven additional years rolled 
by and the undertaking was still lagging in the Spring 
of 1905 when, one evening while visiting Pittsburgh, 
Mr. Frick invited his old friend to dinner. 

““Brashear,’’ he asked, “‘how is the observatory com- 
ing on?”’ 

The depressed scientist shook his head. Mr. William 
Thaw had contributed handsomely, but a second stand- 
still had been reached. 

‘*Well,’’ rejoined Mr. Frick, ‘‘go and find out what it 

349 


Frick the Man 


will cost to finish and equip it and if you can raise half 
of the amount by October 15th, I will pay the other 
half.”’ 

So the beautiful observatory was completed and in the 
crypt was placed a tablet in memory of the two best- 
beloved of all residents of Pittsburgh, before or since: 


PHOEBE : S§ : BRASHEAR 


1843-1910 


We have loved the stars too fondly 
To be fearful of the night. 


JOHN - A+ BRASHEAR 
1840-1920 


Responding in 1900 to a request for a contribution to 
a fund for the construction of a library for the College of 
Wooster in Ohio, the home of his parents, Mr. Frick de- 
cided to bear the entire cost of the building, but declined 
to have it called the ‘Frick Library,’’ although finally 
he consented to the placing of a tablet reciting that it 
was erected in memory of his parents. 

No records of his many miscellaneous gifts, prior to 
1914, can be found, but a partial list of contributions 
for educational and humanitarian purposes, exclusive 
of those mentioned elsewhere, comprises the following: 


EpucaTionaL:—Harvard University; American Academy in 
Rome; Pennsylvania College for Women; General Education; Bev- 
erly High School; Pittsburgh Civic Commission; Metropolitan 
Museum of Arts; Boston Museum; Young Women’s Association. 

HuMANITARIAN:—Pittsburgh Newsboys’ Home; Home for the 
Friendless; Home for Crippled Children; Beverly Hospital; Asso- 


35° 


Benefactions and Bequests 


ciation for Improving Condition of the Poor;Children’s Aid Society; 
Pittsburgh Tuberculosis Hospital; Homestead Hospital; Gloucester 
Fishermen; Beverly Playgrounds; Seamen’s Church; New York 
Dispensary and Hospital; Association for the Blind; Homestead 
Park; Kingsley House Association; Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland; 
Children’s Hospital; Mercy Hospital; Presbyterian Aged Women’s 
Home; Home for Incurables; Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital; Pub- 
lic Baths, Pittsburgh; Martinique Sufferers; Allegheny General 
Hospital; Actors’ Hospital; Soho Bath House; Russian Jews; San 
Francisco Sufferers; San Bois Coal Mine Sufferers; Infants’ Hos- 
pital, and Mt. Pleasant Park. 


The year 1914 brought a contribution for the Salem 
sufferers followed by donations of various sums to the 
Lying-In-Hospital, the Women’s Service League, the 
Horticulture Society, the New York Militia, the Masonic 
Homes, the Memorial to Mrs. Schenley, the Railroad 
Fund, the New York Police Relief Fund, the New York 
Charity Organization, the Museum of Natural History, 
Dorchester House Hospital, for the Unemployed of Pitts- 
burgh and New York, the Valley Forge Memorial, the 
Roanoke Auditorium, the American School in Rome, the 
Scottdale Temperance Campaign, the Actors Fund and 
many others, notably for anything helpful to children,— 
Boy Scouts, Girls’ Camp Outings, Home for Deficient 
Children and nurseries. Nearly all of such gifts were 
made anonymously and frequently in cash to avoid pub- 
licity. Probably no man ever gave more freely and con- 
stantly or strove more earnestly to prevent his left hand 
from knowing what his right hand was doing. 

Mr. Frick’s final disposition of his great accumulations 
was made in 1915, in a Will pronounced by Lewis Cass 
Ledyard, Esq., leader of the American Bar, the most ad- 

351 


Frick the Man 


mirable and the easiest to put into form of the many 
involving large bequests he had drawn. 

“Mr. Frick,’’ he once said, ‘not only knew precisely 
what he wanted to do but precisely how he wanted to 
do it. His own detailed conception called for no more 
than certain legal phrasing to become as nearly perfect 
as any testament I have ever read.”’ 

After allotting about one-sixth of his estate to mem- 
bers of his family, he made the following public bequests: 


To THE Frick Coxtection (Incorporated):—Real estate bounded 
by Fifth Avenue, Seventieth Street, Madison Avenue and Seventy- 
first Street, dwelling house thereon with contents thereof, com- 
prising paintings and other works of art, furnishings and organ, 
subject to occupancy by Mrs. Frick during her lifetime, “‘for the 
purpose of establishing and maintaining a gallery of art in and at 
the said house and premises above described, and encouraging and 
developing the study of the fine arts, and of advancing the general 
knowledge of kindred subjects; such gallery of art to be for the 
use and benefit of all persons whomsoever, to the end that the 
same shall be a public gallery of art to which the entire public 
shall forever have access, subject only to reasonable regulations 
to be from time to time established by the said corporation.” 

To THE TRUSTEES OF THE Frick Coutiection (Mrs. Frick, Miss 
Frick, Mr. Childs Frick and Messrs. George F. Baker, Jr., J. Horace 
Harding, Walker D. Hines, Lewis Cass Ledyard, John D. Rocke- 
feller, Jr., and Horace Havemeyer and their successors )— $15 ,000- 
000 in trust to collect the income therefrom and use the same for 
maintenance of, and additions to, the said Collection. 

‘Section 6. I am conscious that, in asking their acceptance of 
these trusts for carrying out my wishes for the formation and or- 
ganization of Tur Frick Cotxecrion, I am imposing upon these 
gentlemen a duty which may prove very burdensome, and my only 
justification for asking this advice at their hands is found in my 
belief that they will undertake it because it is a public service. 

““SEcTION 7. It is my desire and purpose through the provisions 
of this Article of my will to found an institution which shall be 


354 


Benefactions and Bequests 


permanent in character and which shall encourage and develop the 
study of the fine arts and which shall promote the general knowl- 
edge of kindred subjects among the public at large. 

‘The devise and gifts made by this Article to the said corporation 
herein directed to be formed and to be known as Tus Frick Cot- 
LECTION are subject only to the condition that the said gallery of 
art shall at all times subsequent to the termination of the estate in 
my said dwelling house devised to my wife in and by the first sec- 
tion of this Article of my will, be maintained under the name 
which I have directed to be given to said corporation, and in and 
upon the premises mentioned in this Article, and it is my will that 
such of my paintings and other works of art as are herein bequeathed 
to it shall at all times be there preserved and maintained.”’ 

To THe City or Pirrssurcuo—One hundred and fifty-one acres 
of land (described) as a public park, free to the people, and in trust 
the income of $2,000,000 for its maintenance. 


The public institutions which shared in the residuary 
estate were the following: 


Educational Fund Commission, Children’s Hospital, Allegheny 
General Hospital, Home for the Friendless, Kingsley House Asso- 
ciation, Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh Free Dispensary, Pittsburgh 
Newsboys Home, Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Central Young 
Women’s Christian Association, Uniontown Hospital, Cottage 
State Hospital, Westmoreland Hospital, Mount Pleasant Mem- 
orial Hospital, Braddock General Hospital, Homestead Hospital, 
Trustees of Princeton University, President and Fellows of Har- 
vard College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the So- 
ciety of the Lying-In-Hospital of the City of New York. 


Although circumstances required Mr. Frick to reside 
elsewhere much of the time, he retained his citizenship 
of Pittsburgh and never lost interest in the community 
which had contributed much to, and had profited no less 
from, his success. Not even his splendid donations to 
educative and humanitarian services will live longer in 
the grateful recollection of his former neighbors than a 
relatively trifling but very fine act done by him in 1915, 

353 


Frick the Man 


when the Pittsburgh Bank for Savings closed its doors 
and he promptly telegraphed to his bank to advance 
hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay depositors in 
full, ‘‘so that the children shall not be deprived of their 
Christmas funds.’’ 

‘‘He was always on the look-out for a chance to help 
anyone in distress without being detected,”’ writes his 
private secretary as of that time, who still recalls a few 
of innumerable instances in these words: 


To go back to the days of horse cars: One day, in coming to the 
city, he found himself without the necessary carfare and accepted 
the loan of a nickel proffered by a workingman who was sitting 
beside him, asking him to stop in the office, and when he came, he 
received a five dollar bill, not by way of charity, but as an expres- 
sion of appreciation. Perhaps in referring to this side of Mr. Frick’s 
nature, I should have first mentioned the long list of persons to 
whom he sent monthly checks in such a way as not to make them 
feel they were under any obligations to him for the money. 

Another thing that impressed me was his sympathy for the sick 
and afflicted. 

In coming from the club one day, he saw the Mercy Hospital 
ambulance pulling off the tracks, with iron tires on the wheels. 
When he reached the office, he immediately asked his bookkeeper 
to telephone the hospital to have rubber tires substituted, and 
send the bill to him, which was done. 

Another time, in walking along the street, he found a poor 
family being forced from their home, and their belongings piled 
on the sidewalk. Upon making inquiry into the cause of the trouble, 
he learned that their rent had not been paid. A check for the amount 
was promptly sent to the landlord, and the furniture was replaced 
in the house, which continued to be a home. 

A blind man, living in McKeesport, wrote Mr. Frick about a 
broom machine (giving him the name of the manufacturer) the 
possession of which would enable him to make a comfortable liy- 
ing. Mr. Frick, finding the man was what he represented himself 
to be, took the greatest pains to look into the merits of the machine 


354 


Benefactions and Bequests 


and receiving a satisfactory report, he had one sent to this man 
and later had a most satisfactory letter from him, telling how he 
was providing for his family,—not charity, but a chance. 

At a time before the Salvation Army came into its own, and 
when it was not receiving much sympathy and financial support, 
one of its workers came into the office for a contribution which 
was not only cheerfully given, but the amount of the check was so 
large as to almost stagger the recipient. Mr. Frick always appre- 
ciated the work done by the Salvation Army. 

Two elderly women, who would have spurned the idea of charity, 
but who were obliged to make a living, appealed to him to take 
some of their fancy work, which was the only thing they were 
able to do. This he did, paying a good price for something for 
which he had no use, as it was not suitable for his own home, and 
at times was put to it to know what to do with it as he soon found 
he had become a regular customer, but he never failed to make a 
purchase. 

I regret not being able to recall more of the kind and generous 
acts of Mr. Frick, for they were many, but what always impressed 
me most was the spirit in which everything was given. 


Proud of his thriving city, Mr. Frick could always be 
counted upon to aid any movement to make it appear as 
prosperous as it really was. The William Penn hotel was 
built largely with his money, but his most impressive 
contribution to the material splendor of Pittsburgh was 
the great ‘‘Frick Buirp1ne’’ and the “‘Union Arcade,”’ 
two of the most striking and artistic structures of their 
kind in the world. The site which he deemed most suit- 
able for the building bearing his name was occupied by 
the big St. Peter’s Episcopal church, but by paying a hand- 
some sum for the land and moving the edifice, stone by 
stone, and re-erecting it ina superior location, he accom- 
plished his purpose, as someone remarked at the time, ‘to 
the glory of God and the satisfaction of all concerned.”’ 


6 ae) 


XXV 
Personality 


R. Frick’s most splendid inheritance from 

a long line of outdoor-bred ancestors was 

an exceptionally rugged constitution and, 

when he had mastered for the time the con- 

genital infirmities of his youth, he grew to bea powerful 

man physically. His shoulders were broad for his medium 

height, his chest was very deep and the lines of his torso 

were hardly less classical than those drawn of Hercules 

by a student of the master Lycippus in the famous mar- 

ble statue in the Vatican. But one may well doubt that 

the great god matched him in nimbleness of movement; 
he was quick as lightning. 

The physical attractiveness of his boyhood ripened 
into a highly distinguished appearance in his later years, 
never failing, greatly to his annoyance, to draw the at- 
tention of onlookers when he passed along a street or 
through a railway station. Not that he was shy; he was 
fully composed under all conditions; he was simply, in- 
nately, modest. But his squarely moulded head and finely 
chiseled features, illumed by a pair of twinkling, though 
scrutinizing eyes, combined to make of him a notably 
handsome man. And he always dressed the part, usually 
in dark blue cloth with a hairline stripe and without a 
suspicion of jewelry showing. 

356 


Personality 


His voice was low, soft and melodious and was never 
raised. Whatever annoyance or resentment he ever felt 
appeared in the expression of those eyes, which could 
become ‘‘very steely’’ very quickly. Invariably courteous 
to a degree, his minor manners were, as the discerning 
and somewhat critical Professor Sargent of Harvard re- 
marked once upon a time, “‘literally exquisite, without 
a trace of affectation’; that isto say, in familiar prover- 
bial phrase, he was, beyond compare— 

“‘suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.”’ 

His habits were methodical, punctuated by frequent 
manifestations of impatience at unnecessary interruption 
of routine; and he was never idle for a moment, nor even 
still except at such times as when, having finished the 
morning’s dictation, he would thrust his hands into his 
trousers’ pockets, lean far back in his chair, half close 
his eyes and engage in the silent meditation allotted for 
the day; only to flash into action at its close in putting 
the determination reached summarily into effect. Even 
while holding this favorite posture of apparent repose, 
he personified power—under restraint. 

Paradoxically, his notably quick mind did not respond 
readily to wit; he hardly ever laughed; his real delight 
lay in humor, the subtler the better, which never failed 
to elicit that ‘‘slow, understanding smile,’’ for which 
the equally reticent General Grant became noted, and 
was beloved by his friends. | 

The two men were much alike. 

When finally the opportunity came to heed rare Ben 
Jonson’s advice to ‘‘Recreate yourself; go, sport!’ Mr. 


357 


Frick the Man 


Frick experienced much difficulty in learning how to 
play. Asked once upon a time what was the secret of his 
success, he replied sententiously: 

‘Work and sleep. My alarm clock is always set eight 
hours ahead of the time I go to bed and I have trained 
both body and mind to relax. But hard work is the thing. 
During my first six years with the Steel company I reached 
my office every weekday morning between seven and eight 
and never left till six. I walked enough to keep fit and 
became actually robust. In fact, if I hadn’t been pretty 
husky when assaulted I probably shouldn't have got off 
as well as I did. Carnegie often remarked to me, “You 
certainly do get work out of those fellows.’ I did, too. 
It was the force of example. When they saw what their 
Chairman was doing they all followed suit gladly and 
enthusiastically. So we got on very well.”’ 

‘Follow suit,’’ a term used in playing certain games 
at cards, was familiar to him. Beginning with dominoes 
when a boy, he stepped up to Authors when at school, 
then to high-low-jack, euchre, penny ante and finally 
short whist from which, following the trend of the time, 
he passed on to Bridge and Auction, which became and 
remained his favorite indoor sport, although when “‘a 
fourth’’ was not available he seemed quite content with 
Solitaire, which he would play by the hour. 

The necessity of obtaining outdoor exercise when he 
dropped desk work in New York presented a problem. 
Coming from inland, he first tried yachting and liked it 
so well that he had plans drawn for a novel creation of 
his own designing but, before beginning to build, his 


358 


WITH HIS SECOND GRANDDAUGHTER 


os viet 


vs 


-. 


a} 


Personality 


restless spirit revolted at enforced confinement, and bore- 
dom did the rest. 

His real hobby was speed, terrific speed, which came 
as a reaction from years of patient drudgery and as a re- 
vival of the impatience of an inherently eager disposition. 
Motoring he found delightfully exhilarating unless ham- 
pered by road regulations, to which ultimately, after 
securing the most expertly daring chauffeur to be found 
in France, he paid little heed. Nevertheless, with the 
multiplication of cars, came more and more ‘‘jams’’ and 
greater necessity for hateful ‘crawling along’’ until final- 
ly automobiling, as a pastime, was perforce abandoned. 

Paradoxically, the need was supplied by the outdoor 
sport which calls for more pensive deliberation than any 
other ever devised. Golf held no appeal whatever to 
Mr. Frick; it was ‘“‘too slow’’ and must be “‘very tedious” 
and seemed, in Mr. Roosevelt’s phrase, rather ‘“‘namby 
pamby for live men’’; but he had always walked for ex- 
ercise, and one afternoon, following luncheon at a club, 
he was tempted to follow a match, chiefly from a sense 
of duty. Like many another, amused at first, presently 
he bécame sufficiently interested to ‘‘try a shot,’’ with 
the result that invariably attends a successful effort. He 
tried another and a third, which he missed entirely, but 
he persisted doggedly until, with his fifth stroke he 
luckily dropped a long putt and won the hole. 

That settled it. From the moment the ball struck the 
tin, he was a golfer, and his interest never after flagged. 
A very few lessons sufficed. He watched others closely, 
developed his own methods, practiced assiduously and 

359 


Frick the Man 


becamea very fair player, especially in foursomes, which 
he preferred for their wider opportunities in both com- 
petition and betting. He was always eager to play, rain 
or shine, would accept or give any odds proposed and 
was never satisfied without ‘‘double or quits’’ on the last 
hole. Wherever he played, he “‘joined the Club”’ and at 
the last was ‘“‘at home,”’ on five links about New York, 
three near Pittsburgh, two adjacent to Pride’s, at Sunning- 
dale, England, and La Boulie and St. Cloud in France. 

His play was characterized by the same concentration 
that he applied to business, hardly exceeded by a Travis, 
and in quickness of stroke he was like a Duncan, al- 
though by stern determination he finally schooled him- 
self to a certain deliberateness on the greens. Elsewhere, 
do his best, he could not overcome the urge of his temper- 
ament; he fairly raced around a course, uphill and down- 
dale, particularly at his favorite Myopia, where he en- 
joyed special privileges, and where all stood aside when 
the good-natured warning was passed forward, ‘‘Look 
out, Mr. Frick’s coming!’’ But he never broke a rule, 
flouted “‘etiquette’’ or failed in courtesy. His indignation 
could be aroused only by a suspicion that his antagonist 
was ‘‘letting up’’ on him. Once he hinted as much, only 
to hear the grave response: 

‘Tam playing badly today, I know, but I don’t let up; 
I never did.’’ 

“Neither do I,’’ he rejoined quickly, ‘‘and I don’t like 
others to do so. It was my mistake. I am sure you didn’t. 
I’m sorry Ispoke,’’—and stepping across the tee, he held 
out his hand. 

360 


Personality 


Writing to Mr. Frick from Murray Bay in 1914, to 
thank him on behalf of the trustees for a ‘‘ generous gift’’ 
to Hampton Institute, ex-President Taft added slyly: 


I hope that Myopia Links still give you the pleasure you used to 
derive from them when I was at Beverly. These links at Murray 
Bay are by no means so difficult as you may judge from the fact 
that I have been around once in 82 and once in 83. But I get much 
enjoyment out of them nevertheless. 


Mr. Frick read that portion of the note aloud at lunch- 
eon. 

“Eighty-two and eighty-three!’’ Pretty good, Ishould 
say. And I used to wonder why I couldn’t beat him. I 
ought to. I am eight years older than he is. I wonder if 
he would have mentioned the scores if they had been a 
hundred and two and a hundred and three. I guess he 
would. There’s nothing small about Taft. I must get a 
game with Mr. Rockefeller. He is ten years older than 
Iam and I may havea chance.”’ 

And he got his game some time later,—at the same 
country place at Pocantico where he had induced Mr. 
Rockefeller to sell his ore properties to the Steel Corpo- 
ration in 1901. Asked when he returned how the match 
came out, he replied: 

“Oh, Mr. Rockefeller was most polite; he always is. 
He said he felt sure I wasn’t quite ‘on my game’ today, 
and asked if he was not right?’ 

‘And what did you say?”’ 

“I said ‘Yes’ and added ‘I never was.’ That brought 
a good laugh but he was not to be outdone. 

‘“*“Oh, Mr. Frick,’ he said, ‘I shouldn’t say that, at 
least of any other game I have ever known you to play.’ 

| 361 


Frick the Man 


‘So we were both pleased and satisfied, even though 
he did pulla funny little alphabetical game on me, played 
on the table after luncheon, that I couldn’t make head 
nor tail of.”’ 

The outbreak of war, involving cessation of his annual 
trips abroad, prolonged Mr. Frick’s stays at Pride’s and 
multiplied his opportunities to engage in his favorite 
pastime. 

‘Golf in the morning,’’ was frequently recorded as 
many as six times a week in his daily memoranda, which 
also were enlivened by specific entries indicating his 
boyish zestfulness, such as, for example: 


Played with Helen at Tombstone Tournament with Miss Eleanor 
Sears and Harold Vanderbilt and came in third best. 

Played eighteen holes with Helen against Bryce Allan and Miss 
Holmes and won, four up. 

Played Mr. Parker and was beaten. 

Played Charles Winslow even and won two up and one to play. 

Played Judge Moore six up and five to play. Went out in 49. 
Bogie beat me coming in. 


So pages were filled in Summer and, less profusely, in 
Winter year in and year out, from Dixville Notch to 
Palm Beach, with “‘Auction in the afternoon”’ a frequent 
accompaniment. 

And yet beginning with 1914, the first Winter in his 
new mansion at No. 1 East 7oth Street, to which he had 
transferred his office from downtown, the number of calls 
received was amazing,—marked, however, more by fre- 
quency than by diversity, as he had few close friends. — 

He loved to give small luncheons, with attractive 
women included, and large dinners to ‘‘interesting”’ men 

362 


Personality 


rather than exclusively to business associates. An ad- 
mirable host, he attended to every detail, arranging the 
placing of guests and personally distributing their cards 
to avert possibility of error. 

Always in his box if he liked the opera and never if he 
did not care for it, he was almost equally fond of amus- 
ing plays and hardly ever missed one that had been 
recommended by a person of like taste. A few of his 
favorite organ selections were “‘Largo,’’ ‘“The Pilgrims’ 
Chorus,’ ‘‘William Tell,’’ ‘“The Rosary’’ and Gounod’s 
“Ave Maria.”’ 

Odd items appear in the memoranda, jotted usually 
by his secretary but occasionally by his daughter: 


At Sherry’s Gin 1912.) Mr. Grier bet (me?) $50,000 to $400 that 
if Roosevelt gets both Republican and Progressive nominations, he 
will be elected. 

In Pittsburgh (1916) attended Chamber of Commerce dinner, 
met Senator Warren Harding of Ohio; he looks like fine Presiden- 
tial timber. 

Movies taken of Mr. F. playing cards. Very lifelike. 

Had ten young farmers from Montana on their way to the war 
at Thanksgiving Dinner. Splendid chaps. 

Hereafter when I purchase anything from (naming a certain pic- 
ture dealer) it will be entered in this diary on the day I buy it. If no 
memo is entered it is understood that everything left is on approval. 

Dr. Pritchett lunched with others and showed up Wilson's char- 
acter. Mr. F. drew out others but did not express opinion. 

Stopped at Baltimore and saw the Walters Collection. 

Will Hays called. Contribution. 

Mr. F. left Pride’s for New York with Mr. Grier. He had refused 
to take an overcoat but found one in the car and threw it out of 
the window to tease his daughter. 


Although a ‘‘great reader’ in his youth, Mr. Frick 
seldom opened a modern novel in his late years, but took 
363 


Frick the Man 


pleasure from such books as the ‘Sayings of Marcus 
Aurelius,’’ the ‘‘Memoirs of Cellini,’’ the ‘‘Autobiog- 
raphy of Benjamin Franklin,’’ biographies and quota- 
tions which he made freely from the Bible and Shake- 
speare, much to the edification of his surprised hearers, 
but when he happened upona volume typified by William 
GeorgeJordan’s‘‘Self Control :Its Kinship and Majesty, ’ 
he would buy many copies and send them to his friends. 

He had all of the daily newspapers brought to him 
but only glanced through them, noting the conspicuous 
headlines and the topics of editorials, but paying scant 
attention to financial pages whose information he re- 
garded as based upon gossip and untrustworthy. But two 
widely diverse public journals he was never without: 
Mr. Barron’s News Bureau, containing market reports, 
and oddly the New Yorx Wor tp, his most savage critic 
during the Homestead struggle and continuously an ad- 
vocate of distasteful public policies, “‘in order,”’ he re- 
marked, ‘‘to get the other side.’’ He was greatly annoyed 
once by the appearance of a cartoon in the PrrrssurcH 
Leaver portraying himself. 

‘This won’t do,”’ he ejaculated, “this won't do at 
all; go find who owns this paper and buy it.”’ 

But realizing quickly that he had spoken impulsively, 
he was relieved when the secretary returned and reported 
that Mr. William Flinn, the Republican leader, whose 
feelings also had been hurt, was arranging to purchase 
the paper. 

“That's much better,”’ he said, ‘let Flinn do the worry- 
ing, it is no business for me to get into anyway.’ 

364 


Personality 


And this reflection fixed his policy. Replying to a sug- 
gestion from President Ripley of the Atchison railway 
in 1916, he wrote: 


I carefully note your valued favor of the 25th. I have made it a 
tule never to make an investment in a newspaper. It is a great 
detriment to the newspaper itself to have a man who is supposed 
to be worth considerable money to have an interest in it. 

But he proved himself to be a competent editor at that. 
Abhorring notoriety, he never gave interviews for pub- 
lication, but once while in Pittsburgh he broke his rule 
and spoke freely to a reporter, with the understanding 
that he should have the privilege of editing the copy. 
The reporter wrote painstakingly a full column and sent 
it to his office. Presently it came back, without a word 
of comment, reduced to exactly ten lines. 

Atanother time, when the stock market was distinctly 
bearish and Mr. Frick was conferring with the equally 
uncommunicative Mr. James Stillman in the National 
City Bank, a financial writer whom both respected per- 
sisted in seeking their opinion of the situation and, after 
waiting an hour, he received this card: 


The U. S. A. is a great and growing country. 
| (Signed) Jamzs STILLMAN 
Henry C. Fricx 

This is confidential and not for publication unless names are 
omitted. 

He wrote but two letters in his whole life for publi- 
cation. One was addressed to the representative of Mayor 
Hylan, who had asked him to serve on a committee ap- 
pointed to erect in France a monument in memory of the 
soldiers from New York City who had served in the war. 


365 


Frick the Man 


Mr. Frick felt that he would do himself injustice if he 
should decline such a request without presenting his 
reasons for doing so, and these he set forth with such 
clarity and restraint in a communication, which not 
only breathed his intense nationalism but outlined his 


’ é¢ 


broad conception of America’s “one great compensation” 
for its sacrifices and voiced his earnest hope for great good 
to come out of it for his country, that a better illustra- 
tion of his soundness of thought could hardly be found. 

From a sense of duty, hoping that his views might 
bear some influence in the direction which he considered 
both right and patriotic, he sent his letter to the [r1s- 
UNE, which published it as follows: 


My dear Mr. Whalen: New York, Dec. §, 1918. 


I beg that you will express to His Honor the Mayor my sincere 
appreciation of his courtesy in asking me to serve as a member of 
the committee to superintend the erection of a monument on a 
battlefield of France to commemorate the valorous deeds of the 
soldiers from New York City. I need hardly say that I am in full 
accord and sympathy with the admirable impulse which actuates 
His Honor in this matter, and it is for that reason I wish you to 
assure him that most reluctantly I feel obliged to decline the com- 
mission which he has so graciously proffered me. 

There occur to my mind two general objections, not, of course, 
to the laudable spirit of the undertaking, but to the carrying out 
of the project itself. The first is one of practicability. An example 
such as this, set by the foremost municipality of the Union, would 
be followed inevitably by hundreds of other cities and towns. It is 
altogether probable, moreover, that the citizens of Great Britain 
and her colonies, Italy and Portugal, would take similar action in 
recognition of their brave sons who no less splendidly fought and 
died in the great common cause. 

Might not such happenings, arising from the requests from 
thousands of segregated communities for suitable sites, prove a 


366 


Personality 


source of infinite embarrassment to the authorities of France, who 
naturally would be desirous of pleasing all and treating all alike? 
Then, too, in our own country, would not the natural rivalry be- 
tween towns as to which should furnish the best monument and 
obtain the best site be likely to engender bitterness unbecoming a 
great nation which put forth its best efforts as a unified force? And 
would it be fair to smaller and poorer communities, which may 
have suffered greater sacrifices proportionately, to overshadow their 
modest shafts with great monuments such as opulent cities like New 
York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh would surely erect? 

All of our soldiers in this great war fought, as I understand it, 
as a national army for their common country. New York fought 
for Wyoming and Wyoming for New York; Texas for Wisconsin 
and Wisconsin for Texas—one for all and all for one—a mighty 
Union, solid as a rock in defence of national freedom. Ought we 
who remained at home, even in praiseworthy endeavor to prove 
our undying gratitude, do anything that might tend in history to 
apportion the credit between even states, to say nothing of in- 
numerable towns and villages? 

I cannot think so. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say that, grateful 
as I am to the brave men from New York or from my home city, 
Pittsburgh, I am no less, and perhaps ought to be more, grateful 
to those equally courageous who went from far-off Kansas and 
Utah to safeguard the lives and properties of those of us who live 
on the seaboard. : 

My second point in what I am confident His Honor will accept 
as a most friendly remonstrance is this: The one great compen- 
sation of this war for America has been the unifying of our country 
at the very moment when we were drifting dangerously apart, 
both racially and sectionally, and segregating ourselves uncon- 
sciously into classes. The common peril brought us together, until 
now I, for one, really feel that we are more nearly ‘one and insepa- 
rable’ than ever before. 

Let us hold to that, and, above all, do nothing that might by 
any possibility revive the. prejudices which formerly prevailed to 
no small degree against the people of this imperial city, who now, 
all must admit, have proved their patriotism. 

I most heartily approve a movement to commemorate upon the 
battlefields of France the splendid deeds of the splendid sons of 


367 


Frick the Man 


America, and I am only too glad to accord to Mayor Hylan the 
highest credit for having originated the thought, but my con- 
viction is so strong that it should be a national movement for our 
own sake, and conducted through a national agency in considera- 
tion of both France and our other allies, that I find myself unable 
to accept the honor conferred upon me. 

Again begging you to extend to His Honor assurances of my 
deep appreciation, and with hearty good wishes, I remain, my 
deat Mr. Whalen, faithfully yours, 

H. C. Frick. 


The effect of this communication, couched in terms, 
characteristic of the writer, so gracious that the Mayor 
could by no possibility take offense, was instantaneous. 
Many who had received like invitations politely declined, 
several who had already assented withdrew their accept- 
ances and the project was abandoned, to the great elation 
of Mr. Frick who, while disclaiming more than a mod- 
est part of credit for the result, exclaimed gleefully, “Now 
doesn’t that just show that, if I had been thoroughly 
educated, I might have accomplished something with 
my pen?’ 

It was this sense of regret, almost of resentment, of 
which, in common with most men in like circumstances, 
he was conscious,—unduly so, because in his early years 
he had trained his mind for all practical purposes so 
thoroughly that his letters reveal exceptional proficiency 
in clear, concise and well-defined expression. Neverthe- 
less there can be no doubt that the educational advan- 
tages conferred by his bounty upon thousands of boys, 
girls and young teachers was attributable in large meas- 
ure to cognizance of his own early handicap. 

368 


Personality 


‘Don’t tell the little girls fairy tales, teach them real 
things,’ was a constant admonition. 

His well-considered judgment of relative values of 
methods appeared in the following striking response to 
a query from Princeton: 


New York. February 19th, 1916. 
The Daily Princetonian, 
Princeton, N. J. 
Gentlemen: 

In reply to your Mr. Robert Cresswell’s letter of the roth inst., 
as to my Opinion on‘’whether a man is benefited or handicapped for 
a business career by a college education,’’ I would say that it de- 
pends largely upon the man. Some men are spoiled by college; 
others pass through college with gain. Whether, in the latter case, 
the gain outweighs that which they might have obtained by spend- 
ing the same time and effort in business is an open question; my 
Opinion again is that it depends upon the man. 

Looking at the matter broadly, it seems to me that the chief 
gain of a college education, is not the education itself, but the 
friendships made. On the other hand, to weak natures, this is its 
greatest danger, and in individual cases explains the prejudice 
which you concede exists against colleges. 

The fact that the college system is being called into question is 
an indication of some inherent weakness in it; and I have long 
felt myself in agreement with William George Jordan, the author 
of Mental Training, 2 Remedy for Education, who, in this and 
other writings, holds that the weakness of our whole system of 
education, including that given in colleges, is that it is based on 
information, not inspiration. He claims that it stuffs the mind 
with undigested facts, but does not develop power. And it is be- 
yond question that our schools and colleges rarely produce men 
with minds trained, clear, efficient, with power to concentrate, 
ready on the instant to be applied to any problem. 

What our colleges give, few men either remember or use in bus- 
iness or in life; it is, as Jordan says, constant mental feeding with- 
out developing the basic mental powers all men need in their daily 
living. They need trained senses, keen observation, clear thinking, 


369 


Frick the Man 


rapid reasoning, active, alert memories, trained imagination, ex- 
pression in language, mental efficiency of every phase, so that the 
mind is as ready as the hand for every motion of which it is capa- 
ble. In business life men gain these powers somewhat and some- 
how, and the measure of their attainment is the measure of their 
individual success. 

If Jordan is right, no school, or college has for its ideal the direct 
practical development of these mental powers, as physical exer- 
cises develop the muscles of the body. If the schools and colleges 
did give this, as they should, and as, in the future, under some 
better system, they will, the world would be transformed. 

Yours very truly, 
H. C. Frick. 


Many offers to confer upon him an honorary degree 
came to Mr. Frick from universities and colleges but he 
declined invariably upon the ground that he did not feel 
that he had done anything to justify acceptance of the 
honor. He recognized the propriety, however, of being 
chosen a Fellow in Perpetuity of the Metropolitan Mu- 
seum of Art and greatly appreciated a unanimous tender 
of a Life Trusteeship of Princeton in response to the plea 
that his business experience would be of value to the 
university, but he took care to seek confirmation of the 
Board’s stated reason by writing to President Hibben: 

Will you kindly send me a complete financial statement of Prince- 


ton University, as I think I should become aware of its financial 
condition before I qualify as Trustee. 


At the time of his death Mr. Frick held life member- 
ship in sixty-seven clubs and associations, with those 
prefixed ‘‘National’’ and ‘“‘American’’ predominating. 
As early as 1872 he joined the King Solomon Lodge of 
Free and Accepted Masons of Connellsville and won the 

37° 


« 


MUOA MAN LAYHULS HLALLNAAAS LSVA ANO WAGCWAN 


Personality 


prescribed Scottish Rite and Commandery degrees before 
1880, when he became a life member of the Order of the 
Knights of the Red Cross, of the Knights Templars and 
of the Knights of Malta. 

Although he became a communicant of the Baptist 
Church at the age of eighteen, he was never a strict sec- 
tarian, later in life attending the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, whose form of service appealed more strongly 
to his sense of dignity, harmony and beauty, and con- 
tributing generously to the support of both, as well as 
to the Lutheran Church of his parents. He was devout 
rather than pious—apparently agreeing with Southwell 
that— 


Bare communion with a good church can never make a good 
man; if it could, we should have had no bad ones. 


Hence his gifts to the two undenominational Young 
Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations and 
uncounted sums to the Salvation Army. 

Mr. Frick’s deep tenderness for children was revealed 
constantly in his daily life. His attitude towards them 
was more than kind, more than affectionate; it was, in 
the words ofa gentle lady who had been watching the ex- 
pression of his eyes and the lightness of his touch when 
at rest with his grandchildren, ‘‘positively reverential.” 

Not that he was averse to play! Far from it! He was 
always ready for a frolic and never hesitated, upon call, 
to “‘leap frog’ or even to swish down the sliding board 
and land, amid gales of delight, with ‘‘an awful bump.” 
But when all had tired and clambered upon his knees 
and snuggled close to his breast, there was something 

3 371 


Frick the Man 


akin to awe in his loving observance of their tousled 
heads, and he would sit moveless so long as they could 
keep their eyes closed in pretense of sleep. 

This arousal of the unsuspected emotional side of his 
nature undoubtedly sprang from the first grievous trag- 
edy that entered his life. He could never wholly appease 
the intense sorrow which nearly overwhelmed him at 
the passing of his little daughter Martha at the age of 
six in 1891. Asked timidly twenty years later if the re- 
port published at the time that her apparently living 
image dazzled his vision while he lay in his office dazed 
by theanarchist’s assault upon him, was true, he simply 
nodded affirmatively and bowed his head, and unfailingly, 
on the morning of August 5th of each year thereafter, he 
remarked quietly to his family, ‘If Martha had lived, 
she would have been (so many) years old today.’ And 
when he paid in advance the full amount of the deposits 
of thousands of children in the bankrupt savings bank 
in Pittsburgh, an engraved portrait of Martha appeared 
upon every check. 

That his firstborn girl baby held to the end first place 
in the shrine of his heart there can be no question, but 
ample room was left for those who followed and to them 
also, notably his grandchildren, Adelaide, Martha and 
Frances, he was passionately devoted. And when word 
came on October 18th, 1919, that Henry Clay Frick, 
2nd, was born, he lost not a minute in writing and dis- 
patching to the mother this pretty and gleeful letter: 


372 


Personality 


Saturday 6 P.M. 
Oct. 18th, 1919 
One East Seventieth Street 
Well done, Dear Frances! 

Heartiest congratulations! You have your wish, and I have mine, 
for now that the youngster has come and proved a boy, I will con- 
fess that I, too, am especially gratified and pleased. Not that a 
granddaughter would not have been welcomed as heartily as be- 
fore—for we should have felt that you were multiplying our hap- 
piness by four instead of three—but as Burns says ‘‘A man’s a man 
for a’ that!’’ and a mother of three girls is justified in her wish for 
a son. 

I send a cordial welcome to the boy, who has thus early shown 
great discrimination in the selection of his parents—to say noth- 
ing of his grand parents. 

Best wishes for your early convalescence. 

Affectionately 
Your Devoted 
Father 


The next day but one, before going to inspect the new 
atrival, he remarked to his wife, according to the Diary: 


You were saying how pretty the baby is; I want to know if he 
has a good head? Does he have it all back of his ears or is it above 
his ears? She replied: ‘“‘When I come to think of it, his head is just 
like yours’’! He laughed and, upon returning from the hospital, as- 
sured Mrs. F. that she hadn’t said a word too much about the baby, 
that he was a fine little chap and really had ‘‘a splendid head.”’ 

Returning from a business meeting in Pittsburgh, where 
he told an inquisitive reporter that the only ‘‘new busi- 
ness enterprise’’ he had on hand, or should undertake, 
was on Long Island, and on November 2nd he brought 
the four children together in their home, promising to 
pay another visit in a few days. But on the 4th, follow- 
ing a luncheon which he gave in honor of Senator James 
A. Reed, the Missouri ‘“‘Irreconcilable,’’ he became ill 


373 


Frick the Man 


of ptomaine poisoning and a cold, which brought on an 
attack of his lifelong malady, inflammatory rheumatism 
threatening his heart, and on the 7th, after participating 
in his last meeting of the Steel Company’s directors in 
his house, he was put to bed, where he remained until 
the 19th, when he was permitted to come downstairs 
and ‘‘sit with my pictures.’’ 

This proved to bea fatal error. His pledge to visit his 
grandson was uppermost in his mind and he determined 
to keep it, regardless of the stern injunction of his phy- 
sician that under no circumstances, should he leave the 
house. 

On the next day but one he ordered his car to go to 
Long Island. The horrified nurse quickly informed his 
wife and daughter and the three united in pleading en- 
deavor to dissuade him from undertaking the trip, but 
he would not listen. Off he started, followed furtively 
by his distracted daughter and nurse. The trip required 
an hour or more but he reached his son’s house in happy 
mood and good condition, remained for half an hour 
petting and playing with his grandchildren, and returned 
home proud and satisfied. 

But complete exhaustion soon followed and an urgent 
summons quickly brought the doctor, who prescribed 
restoratives but notified the family upon leaving that he 
would no longer attend a patient who had disobeyed his 
orders. Another physician was called in but he could not 
gain the confidence of the sick man, and wife and daughter 
renewed their fervid appeals to his predecessor to resume 
charge of the case, but in vain. 

374 


Personality 


Mr. Frick showed signs of a gradual though slight 
improvement during the succeeding eleven days and gave 
no cause for apprehension when, at five o'clock on the 
morning of December 2nd, as had frequently happened 
in the night, he summoned his nurse and said quietly: 

‘Please give me a glass of water.”’ 

The response was prompt and, taking and holding the 
glass without effort, Mr. Frick drank the water and, 
thanking the nurse, resumed an easy position and said: 

“That will be all; now I think I'll go to sleep.”’ 

A few moments later, the nurse tiptoed into the room 
and, hearing no sound, stepped noiselessly to the bedside 
and looked down upon a pallid but wholly tranquil 
countenance. Thus quietly and peacefully the spirit of 
Henry Clay Frick passed into the haven of intrepid souls. 


375 


Index 


Assott, WitttaM L., 103, 106-8, 253-4. 
Atpricu, Sen. Netson W., 294-8. 
ALEXANDER, JamEs W., 278-80. 

Attizs’ Bazar, 316. 

AMALGAMATED AssocraTION OF IRON & 
Sree, Workers, 106, 108-29, 133-4, 
140, 148-54, 164, 172, 177. 

AMERICAN AMBULANCE HospiTat IN 
FRANCE, 315. 

AMERICAN FEDERATION oF Labor, 176. 

AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 5. 

ANCESTRY, I-II. 

ARBUCKLE, Mr., 180. 

ArmoreD Motor Squapron, 315. 

ARNOLD, BENEDICT, 3 

Art Cotuector, H.C. Frickas an,331-43. 

AtcHison, Topeka & Santa F£, 277,281, 
365. 

ATTEMPTED AsSASSINATION, 136-45. 

Atwoop, ALBERT W., 274. 


Bacuman, Simon, see Alexander Berk- 
man. 

Baxer, Gzorce F., 209, 274, 316. 

Batrimorg & Onto Raitway, §2, 277. 

Barron, Cuartzs W., 275. 

Barucu, Bernarp M., 319-22. 

Beat, Mr., 2.44. 

Berrter, Anna, (Wife of Henry Over- 
holt), 5-6. 

BENEFACTIONS AND BEQusstTs, 343-55. 

Betcian Retizr Funp, 315. 

BzerKMAN, ALEXANDER, 135-9, 142, 144- 
5,176, 188. 

BrssEMER Org, 187-8. 

Brratu or H. C. Frick, 11. 

BispHaM, GzorGE T., 2.43. 

Brackpurn, WIiLu1AM W., 103. 

Braing, James G., 97, 146. 

Bratz, WittiaM G., 25. 

Buss, Corne.ivus N., 279, 298. 

Boarp oF Parpons, 176. 

Bonaparte, C. J., Attorney General, 
306, 311. 

Borg, Henry B., 103. 

BorNnTRAEGER, Henry W., 103. 

BoswortH, Mr., 233. 

Boynoop or H. C. Fricx, 12-28. 

Brappock Figetp, National Guards at, 
133. 

BRraNDEGEE, SEN. F. B., 325. 

BrasHEaR, JoHN A., 346-50. 


BrasHear, Mrs. Joun A., 350. 

Bripcez, James H., quoted, 77-8, 122-3, 
2.30. 

Bryan, WILLIAM JENNINGS, 294. 

Bucks County Muiuitta, 5. 

Burrincton, JupGE JosEpH, 346. 

BurLEIGH, CLARENCE, 243. 

Byers, A. M., 191. 

Byers, J. FREDERICK, I9I. 


Cameron, Sen. Donatp, 292-3. 

C. G. C. Co. & Hutcuinson, 80. 

CapitaL AND Lasor, 147, 161-2. 

Carirauist, H. C, Fricx, a, 269-88. 

Carneciz, ANDREW, 74-108, 127, 139, 
148-268, 271, 273, 296, 358. 

Carnzciz, Mrs. ANDrEw, 88, 89. 

Carnecigz Brotuers & Co., Lrp., 77-8, 
87, 93, 97, 100-2, 240. 

CaRNEGIE Company, THE, 257-9. 

CarneciE Putpps & Co., 97-8, 101-2, 106, 
219. 

CarngGcigz Street Co., History of —by 
J. H. Bridge, 77-8, 122-3, 230. 

Carnegotg Steet Co., Lrp., 102-5, 124, 
133-4, I40-I, 151, 155, 173, 175-210, 
218-57, 291. 

CarNneGtz, THomas, 76-9, 83. 

Carnzaig, Mrs. WILLIAM, 74-5. 

Carter, Szen. Toomas H., 157. 

Cuasz Nationat Bank, 344. 

Cuicaco & NorTHWESTERN RaiLtway, 
277,281. 

Cuitps, Miss Apgiaipeg, see Mrs. H. C. 
Frick. 

Cuitps, Asa P., 73. 

Cuitps, Mrs. Asa P., 88. 

Cuitps, Miss Martua H., 88. 

Cuutps, Oris H., 103, 125. 

Craze, BE. L., 100, 

CiarKsON, JAMES S., 157. 

Cray, Henry, Il. 

Cremsen, Mr., 216, 221, 233, 255- 

CLEVELAND, PresipENT GroveER, 146, 
157, 178. 

Crews & Co., Henry, 46. 

Coxz, Beginning Business in, 29-43. 

CotzMaN, WILLIAM, 77. 

Commerciat Trust Company OF Paita- 
DELPHIA, 278, 280. 

ConcGrEssionaL InvesTIGATING CoM- 
MITTEE, 107, 205-7, 243-5. 


377 


Index 


CoNNELLSVILLECOKE, §0-I, 53,62, 65,72. 
ConTINENTAL CONGRESS, 2. 

Cooxe & Co., Failure of Jay, 46-7. 
Corey, James B., 42-3, 66. 

Corzy, W. E., 275, 299. 

Cortetyou, Grorcs B., 298. 
Cortissoz, Roya, 332-5. 

Cummins, SENATOR, 282. 

Curry, Henry M., 103,105 ,171,216,248. 
Curtzer, T. Dg Wirt, 282. 

Cycrops Mixx, 213. 


Datg, Ricwarp C,, 243. 

Daze, Scorr & Gorpon, 243. 
Davipson, DaNIgL, 63-4. 
Davipson, Dr. Witu1aM M., 348-9. 
Deatu or H. C. Frick, 375. 
Dempsey, Huau, 175. 

Dick, Samuet B., 198. 

Ditton, Patrick R., 103. 

Dixon, Dr., 58-9. 

Dotan, THomas, 157. 

DugQuesnz STEEL Company, 100. 
Duqussng Works, 110, 165, 172, 175. 


Fart, E. 'T., 275. 

Epcar THomson Works, 77, 110, 165, 
574,397 

Epmunps, Grorce F., 293. 

EpucaTIoNaL Funp CommIssION, 345-9. 

EpucationaL Institutions, Gifts to, 
34475 350. 

EicutH PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT, 2-3. 

Exvxtns Act, 301. 

Evxins, STEPHEN B., 149, 153-7. 

EquiTaB_e Lirg AssuRANCE SOCIETY, 278- 
80, 299. 

EquiraBLE Trust Company or New 
York, 280. 

Equity Surt against the C. S. Co., Ltd., 
by H. C. Frick, 243. 

Escu, Joun J., 282. 


Fercuson, E. M., 64, 78-9, 87. 

Fgrcuson, Watton, 78-9, 87. 

Firra AVENUE RgsiDENCE, 362. 

First NationaL Bank or New York, 
326: 

Fisk & Hatcu, 46. 

Frnat Dramatic Break between H. C, 
Frick and Andrew Carnegie, 227-36. 

FLEMING, JOHN C., 103. 

Frower, Governor Roswe tz P., 209. 


378 


Frinn, Wixi14M, 364. 

ForziGn Revations, Committee on, 317. 

Foster, Joun W., 148. 

FRANKLIN NaTionaL Bank oF Puita- 
DELPHIA, 278, 280. 

Free TRADE, 146-7. 

Freer Museum, 334. 

Frencu Artists, Families of Disabled, 
316. 

Frick AND Company, 36-7, 40-3, 48-51, 
56-66. 

Frick Buitp1nG, PrrrsBuRGH, 270, 355. 

Frick, Mrs. Cuixps, 373. 

Frick Coxe Company, THE H. C., 78-92, 
102, 180, 185, 199, 203-4, 212, 221-9, 
233-7, 246, 256. 

Frick CoLLEcTION, 331-43. 

Fricx, ConraD, I-2. 

Fricx, Dantz1, 4, 12. 

Frick, GgorGE, 4. 

Frick, Miss Heten C., 202. 

Frick, Henry Cray, Ancestry, I-11; 
Birth, 11; Boyhood, 12-28; School- 
days, 13-19;Startsto work, 19; Interest 
in reading, 21, 70, 364; Games played, 
22; Attends Otterbein College, 14-15, 
23; Goes to work in Pittsburgh, 24; 
Typhoid Fever, 27; Enters Overholt 
Distillery as bookkeeper, 27; Begin- 
ning Business in Coke, 29-43; Frick & 
Co. organized, 36; Rechristened **H. 
C. Frick & Co.’’, 64; Reorganized as 
The H. C, Frick Coke Co."’, 78; First 
loans from T. Mellon & Sons, 35, 38- 
43; A Triumph of Faith and Courage, 
44-64; Death of Grandmother, 58; In- 
flammatory Rheumatism, 58-64; Panic 
of 1873, 44-66; Interlude, 67-75; First 
holiday in Europe, 71-2; Meets Miss 
Adelaide Childs, 73; Marriage, 74; 
First meeting with Andrew Carnegie, 
74; Enter the Carnegies, 76-92; Coke 
Strike of 1887, 83-6; Resigns as Pres. 
of Coke Co., 85; Offers to sell his in- 
terest in Coke Co., 87; Takes his fam- 
ily to Europe (2887), 88-9; Visits 
Andrew Carnegie in Scotland, 89; Re- 
elected President of Coke Co., 89; 
Coke strikes of 1889 and 1890, 90-2; 
“The Man”’ in Steel, 93-105; Chair- 
man of Carnegie Bros. & Co., 93; Ac- 
quisition of Duquesne Steel Co., 100; 


Index 


Steel Company reorganized as Carnegie 
Steel Co., Ltd., 102; Increases his in- 
terest in steel, 103-5; Chairman of Car- 
negie Steel Co., Ltd., 105; Homestead 
Strike, 106-86; Birth of Son, Henry 
Clay, Jr., 129; Attempted Assassina- 
tion, 136-45; Death of infant son, 141; 
Politics, 146-59; “The Laird”’ and ‘‘the 
Man," 160-74; Victory’s Cost and 
Gain, 175-86; Visits Cluny Castle, 183; 
Mr. & Mrs. Carnegie visit Frick Home, 
183; Oliver and Frick, 187-99; Moore 
Syndicate, 200-17; Receives his Resig- 
nation, 218-26; Sale of Peter’s Creek 
land, 218-20; Mr. Carnegie must apol- 
ogize, 219-20; Final Dramatic Break, 
227-36; Wins the Fight, 237-57; Iron- 
clad agreement, 238-57; Brings Equity 
Suit against Carnegie Steel Co., Ltd., 
243; U.S. Steel Corporation, 258-68; 
Moves to New York, 269; A Capital- 
ist, 269-88; Public Affairs, 289-312; 
Union Steel Company, 273; Director 
in various Railway Cos., 277, 281; 
Equitable Life Assurance Soc.,278-80, 
299; The Patriot, 313-30; An Art Col- 
lector, 331-43; Paintings purchased, 
337-43; Benefactions and Bequests, 
344-55; Personality, 356-75; Music and 
the Theatre, 363; Choice of books and 
newspapers, 364; Declines Honorary 
Degrees, 370; Made Fellow in Perpe- 
tuity of Metropolitan Museum, 370; 
Life Trusteeship of Princeton, 370; 
Masonic Lodges, 370-1; Religion, 371; 
Last Illness, 374-5; Death, 375. 
Frick, Mrs. Henry Cray, (Miss Ade- 
laide Childs), 73-4, 88, 140, 143, 169. 
Frick, Henry Cray, Jr., Birth, 129, 
Death, 141. 
Frick, Henry Cray, 2ND, 372-3. 
Frick, JoHANN NicHozas, 1, 3, 6. 
Frick, JOHN, 2. 
Fricx, JoHn W., 4, 10, 23, 32-5, 40. 
Frick, Mrs. Joun W.., 4, 10-13, 35,38, 40. 
Frick, Miss Marta O., 11, 27, 30-1. 
Fricx, Swiss family of, 1. 
Fuuuer, Dr., 58-9. 


GarDNER, CONGRESSMAN, 207. 
Gary, EvpertH.,245,260-8,273-4,303-9, 
311, 319. 


Gates, Joun W., 293. 

Garter, Mr., 216, 221, 233, 255. 

GuapsTonE, Mr. & Mrs. Lincoin, 96. 

Gotp Nore SynpicaTE, 315. 

Gotpman, Emma, 136, 145. 

Go tr, Interest in, 359-62. 

Gompers, SAMUEL, 132, 176. 

Goop Tempiars, INDEPENDENT ORDER 
OF, 21. 

GRANDCHILDREN, 372-3. 

Grant, PrestDENT Uxysszs S., 44, 46, 357: 

Gray, Cot. Josepa H., 117-20. 

Gronna, Sen. Astz J., 317. 


HarpinG, PresipDENT WaRREN G., 292. 

Harriman, Epwarp H., 279, 298. 

Harrison, PrestpeENtT BENJAMIN, 146, 
149, ISI, 156-59. 

Heinpe, Capr., 117, 119-20. 

Hiau, Rev. J. C., 21. 

Hitizs, Cuartss D., 310. 

Hines, Wacker D., 281-8. 

Horrman, J. ODGEN, 103. 

HomestTxEaD, 106-86, 188, 294. 

Howes & Macy, 46. 

Hucues, Cuartes Evans, 299, 311-12. 

Hypg, James H., 278-80, 299. 

Hyzan, Mayor Joun F., 365. 


Inxino1s StzzL Company, 184, 202, 293. 

Incatts, Metvitzez E., 279. 

Inst1ITUTE OF Min1nc & METALLURGICAL 
ENGINEERS, 196. 

INTERLUDE, 67-75. 

InTerRsTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, 300-1. 

IRoN-cLAD AGREEMENT, 238-57. 

Istum1aAN CANAL ComMISsION, 298. 

Ives, BRAYTON, 279. 


Jackson, Presipent ANDREW, 8. 
Jzrrzrson, Presipent THomMas, 162. 
Jounson, Joun G., 243, 249. 
Jounson Museum, 333-4. 

Jonzs, Mr., 96. 

Jonson, BEN, 357- 


Keene, JAMEs R., 271. 

Ketiocc, Frank B., 307-9. 

Kunz, Capt., 117. 

Kioman BRoTHERSs, 213. 

Knicuts oF Lasor, 83, 108, 175-6. 

Knox, PHILANDER C., 290-2, 307, 310- 
II, 317, 326, 328-9. 


379 


a 


Index 


Knox & Regp, Messrs., 117, 233, 243, 
2.49. 


Labor AND CaPITAL, 147. 

Lazor, Knights of, 83, 108, 175-6. 

La Fottertez, Sen. Rosert M., 317. 

**Larrp’’ AND THE ‘‘Man,”’ Tue, 160-74. 

Lang, Sen. Harry, 317. 

Lauper, GEORGE, 103, 105, 152, 158, 
165, 169-72, 203, 205, 212, 221-3, 231, 
2335 28N) 

LeaGue or NATIONS, 324, 327-30. 

Lepyarp, Lewis Cass, 303-5, 351. 

LzisHMAN, JOHN G. A., 103, 105, 137-8, 
142, 171, 185. 

Lenox Lisrary, 270. 

Liperty Loans, 316-17. 

LincoLn, ABRAHAM, 9. 

Literature, H.C. Frick’s interest in, 21, 
70, 364. 

Lovyjoy, Francis T. F., 103, 105, 203, 
216-17, 221, 241, 247-9, 255. 

Lyncu, Mr., 233-4. 


McApoo, Witi1aM G., 281. 
McCreary, SHERIFF, 117, 123, 129-31. 
McCook, Wits F., 243. 

McCormick, Sen. J. Mepitt, 329. 

McE.tpowney, Mr., 316, 317. 

Mackay, Cor. AENBAS, 2. 

McKintey B11, 147, 294, 297. 

McKinzey, PrestipeENT WILLIAM, 290-1, 
2.94. 

Macrum & Car tiscg, 25. 

**Man”’ in STEEL, THE, 93-105. 

Marxtg, Carr. C.C., 52, 59, 62. 

Marxiz, Corneuia, (Mrs. Abraham 
Tinstman), 60. 

Martin, Mariya, J., (2nd wife of Dan- 
iel Frick), 4. 

Martin, Sen. THomas S., 317. 

Masonic Lopes, 370-1. 

Metton, ANDREw, 38. 

Matton, ANDREW W., 69-73, 180, 186, 
256, 265, 269-70, 273, 289-90, 293, 324, 
326-29. 

Metion National BANK OF PiTTsBURGH, 
278, 281. 

Mgtuon, RicHarD, 71. 

Meztton & Sons, THomas, 35, 48, 54. 

Metton, Jupcr THomas, 38-43, 47, $4; 
66, 69-70, 289. 


380 


MENNONITES, 5, 9. 

MercanTILE Company oF New York, 
280, 

Merropouitan Museum or Art, 370. 

MILHOLLAND, JOHN E., 150-3, 156. 

Mixxer, CaTHering, (1st wife of Daniel 
Frick), 4. 

Moore BrorHers, 207. 

Moorg & Scutzy, 302-6. 

Moore, Jupce W. H., 204-15. 

Moors SynDICATE, 204-15. 

Moreganp, Mr., 233, 255. 

Morean, Cot. A. S. M., 29, 60. 

Moraan & Co., A. S. M., 43, 59-60. 

Morean, J. P., 261-8, 271-5, 302-6. 

Morean & Co., J. P., 258. 

MorGan SYNDICATE, 95. 

Morrison, THOMAS, 99, IOI, 195, 216, 
227, 233 iee, 

Mors, J. C., 135, 293. 

Morton, Levi P., 148. 

Most, Joun, 136. 

Mount Prieasant Water Co., 87. 

Myers, JosEPH, 33-4. 


Nasu, Auenis, (Widow of Martin Over- 
holt), 5. 

Nass, WILLIAM, §. 

Nationa Bank OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 
46. 

Natronat Crry Banx or New York, 
278, 281. 

NaTionaL GuarDs OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
131-2. 

Nationat Tung Company, 258-9. 

New, Joun C., Consul General, 149-56. 

Newspapers, Selection of, 364. 

New York Centrat Raitway, 46. 

Norprum, Capr., 120. 

NorFroLK AND WEsTERN RaILway, 277. 

Norriz Options, 194. 

Norris, SENATOR, 317. 

Nort Carcaco Roriinec Mitt Co., 87. 

Norrsern Paciric Ramtway, 46. 


Oats, CHAIRMAN, II3. 

Osservatory aT WesterN UNIVERSITY, 
349- 

O’Donnett, HuGu, 111-12, 118, 122, 
148-56. 

OtrverR AND Frick, 187-99. 

Outver, Henry W., 188-99. 


Index 


Ottver Iron Mininc Co., 188, 193, 197, 
199. 

O'Mara, SupeRINTENDENT, 143. 

OrtErseIn CoLiece, 14, 23. 

OveruHoLt, ABRAHAM, 4, 6-9, 13, 16, 27- 
8, 35, 38, 40, 276, 345. 

Overnott & Co., ABRAHAM, 2, 7, 36, 48. 

OverHott, ANNA, 27. 

Overnott, Anna Bertier, (Wife of 
Henry Overholt), 5-6. 

Overnott, Aucnis, (Widow of Martin 
Overholt), 5. 

OvzrHoLt, BENJAMIN, 34. 

OvernHott, CurisTian, 6-8. 

Overnort, Curistian S., 19, 23-4, 31, 
35> 58-9. 

Overnott, Exizasetu, (Mrs. John W. 
Frick), 4, 10-13, 35, 38, 40. 

Ovezrnxott, Exizasets S., (Wife of Chris- 
tian Overholt), 7. 

Overnott Estate, 35. 

Overuxott, Henry, (Son of Martin), 5-7. 

Overnott, Henry, (Son of Henry and 
Anna), 6-7. 

Overnott, Henry S., 27. 

Overuo it, Isaac, 13. 

OverxHotLt, Joun S. R., 30-1, 36-7, 40. 

Overnott, Katuerine, (Wife of Chris- 
tian S. Overholt), 23. 

Overuott, Maria O,. Frick, (Mrs. John 
S. R. Overholt), 11, 27, 30-1. 

Overnott, Marta S.,(Wife of Abraham 
Overholt), 7, 9-11, 24, 27, 57-8. 

Overnott, Martin, I, 4, 5. 

Overnott, Martin S., 19, 23, 31, 35. 

OvernHott, Sarau, 6. 

OverHo tT, SusANNA, 5-6. 


PAINTINGS PURCHASED BY H, C, Frick, 
337-43- 

Paumer, Witt1aM P., 103. 

Panic oF 1873, 44-66. 

Parpons, Boarp or, 176. 

Park, D. E., 100. 

Park, Witu1aM G., 100. 

PaTTERSON, ALFRED, 64. 

Pattison, Gov. Roser E., 129-33. 

Paxson, Carer Justice, 125. 

Payne, Cox. Ottver H., 303. 

Pzacocx, ALEXANDER R., 103, 203, 216, 
221. 

Pzarson, Rev. Dr., 27. 


PenxertT NisILists, 136. 

Penn, WILLIAM, I. 

Pznn Horst, W111, 355. 

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD, §0, 76, 95, 97; 
197, 277, 281-2. 

PEprer, SENATOR, 329. 

Personauiry or H. C. Frick, 356-75. 

Puituips, Dr., 5, 8-9. 

Purpps, Henry, Jr., 76, 78, 84-6, 89, 93- 
5, 98, 103-5, 152, 158, 165, 170-1, 203, 
205-17, 221, 231-2, 240-2, 247-57. 

Puipps, Lawrence C., 103, 105, 216, 218, 
e202 55: 

Puozse Brasnear Cxvs, 348. 

PINKERTON Guarps, 114-16, 118-23. 

Pinkerton, Rosert A., 114-15. 

PirrssurGH, Brssemer & Laxg Enrig 
RaILroaD, 198. 

PirrssurGH, SHENANGO & LaxeE ERIE 
RaiLroap, 198. 

PITTSBURGH STEAMSHIP Co., 199. 

POLDI-PEZZOLI, 334. 

Poxitics, 146-59. 

Porter, JOHN A., 109-10, 117, 119-20, 
125, 134. 

Powper-y, T. V., 176. 

PrIDE's CROSSING, 269, 319, 346. 

Prince, Frepericx H., 198. 

PrinceTon University, 344-5, 369-70. 

PRINCETONIAN, THE Dality, 369-70. 

PROTECTION, 146-7, 296-7. 

Pusuic Arrairs, 289-312. 

Pyne, Moszs T., 345. 


QUAKERS, 5. 
Quay, Sen. M. S., 157, 292-4. 


RgeaDiNnG RartroaD Co., 277, 281. 

Rep Cross, 317. 

REDMOND, GzorGE F., 273. 

Rzep, Sen. James A., 373. 

Reep, Jupcz James H., 207, 243-4. 

Rep, E. H., 63. 

Rep, WuirELaw, 148-56, 158-9. 

RELIGION, 371. 

Resignation, H. C. Frick receives his, 
218-26. 

Riptey, E. P., 365. 

Rust, JoszPH, 29-31, 36-7, 40, 48, 60. 

Roserts, Mr., 95. 

RockEFELLeR, JoHN D., 188-99, 261-68, 


309, 361. 
381 


Index 


RocKEFELLER, JOHN D., Jr., 263. 

RopcGers, Capt., 117, 120. 

RoosEVELT, PresiDENT THEODORE, 292, 
298-301, 305-10, 313, 359. 

Roor, Ex1av, 306. 


St. Pzrer’s Episcopan Cuurcn, Prrts- 
BURGH, 355. 

SALVATION ARMY, 355, 371. 

SARGENT, Pror., 357. 

SCHALLENBERGER, LioyD, 23. 

SCHOONMAKER, SYLVANUSO., 150,270,317. 

ScuwaB, Cuarues M., 99, 177, 181, 195- 
6, 203, 216, 218, 221-2, 231-2, 235, 
241-2, 247, 249, 251, 2§5-7, 259-61. 

Scorch aND Iris SETTLERS, 2, 38. 

Scort, THomas A., 50. 

SHERMAN Law, 301. 

Smmpson, JAMES H., 103. 

Sincer, WittraM H., 103, 105, 216, 221. 

SNowveEN, Mayj.-Gen. Gzorce R., 131. 

Sprinc House, Tue Litttz, 10-11. 

STANDARD Mines Property, 87. 

STANDARD O1t CoMPANY, 304, 307-9. 

STANLEY, CHAIRMAN, 205-6, 311. 

Sraurrer, Rev. ABRAHAM, 7. 

Sraurrer, ExizaBetu, (Wife of Christian 
Overholt), 7. 

SraurreEr, Rev. JouN, 7. 

Sraurrer, Maria, (Wife of Abraham 
Overholt), 7, 9-11, 24, 27, 57-8. 

STILLMAN, JAMES, 365. 

Stone, SENATOR, 317. 

Srrixzs (1887) 83-6; (1889 & 1890) 90-2; 
(Homestead) 106-86. 

Swank, Mr., 297. 


Tart, PRESIDENT WILLIAMH.,292,309-10, 
325, 327, 361. 

Tarirr Bit, New, 296-7. 

TENNESSEE Coat & Iron Co., 302-6. 

THaw, WILLIAM, 349. 

THORNTON, ARTHUR, 133-4. 

TinstMAN, ABRAHAM O., 27, 29-31, 34, 
36-7, 40, 48, 57, 60, 63. 

TinstMANn, Mrs. AsprauaM O., 60, 63. 

TinsTMAN, Jaco O., 32, 35, 57: 

TriumpH oF Faira AND CouraGE, 44-64. 

Trusts, Warfare on, 302-4. 


382 


Union Arcabe BuILpING, PiTTsBURGH, 


355- 

Union Iron Mitts Co., 213. 

Union Paciric RamroaD, 44, 277, 281. 

Union Steet Company, 273. 

Union Trust Co. or Pirrssurcu, 46, 
278, 281, 316. 

Unrrxp Coat & Coxz Co., 87. 

Unitep Statss STEEL CorPporaTION, 196, 
214, 238, 258-68, 271, 273, 281, 303-4, 
306, 310-11, 319-22. 

Unirep War Work, 324. 


Van Buren, Prestipent Mart, 9. 
VANDERBILT, GrorGzE W., 270, 
VANDEVORT, JOHN W., 103, 247. 
VARDAMAN, SEN. J. K., 317. 
VoicHT, SCHOOLMASTER, 13-14. 


Wa xer, JoHN, 84-6, 89, 180, 196, 219, 
230-1, 233-4, 236, 246. 

WaLLacg COLLECTION, 332, 334. 

WatTeER, J. BERNARD, 196. 

WaNAMAKER, JOHN, 149, 153-7. 

War aGainst GERMANY, DgcLARATION 
OF, 317. 

War Inpustrizs Boarp, 319-22. 

WASHINGTON, GEORGE, 2, 231. 

Watson, D. D., 243. 

Wayne, GENERAL, 3. 

WesteRN UNION, 46. 

WestERN UNIVERSITY, 349. 

WetHE, PRESIDENT, 123. 

WHaten, Grover A., 366-8. 

Wuic Party, 9, 11. 

Watney, Mr., 47. 

Wurtney, A. R., 227, 230, 241, 256. 

WickersHaM, GrorcE W., 311. 

WILL AND BEQUESTS, 352-3. 

Witson, ANDREW CARNEGIE, 234, 246. 

Witson Tarirr, 182. 

Witson, Presipent Wooprow, 313-14, 
318-22, 325, 327- 

Woop, Genera LeonarD, 326. 

Wooster, COLLEGE OF, 350. 

WriGLey, SUPERINTENDENT, I34. 


Youno Men’s Curist1an Assn., 371. 
Younc Women’s CurisTIAN ASSN., 371- 


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